LIBRARY  OF  PRINOETOH 


JUL  i  f  *w» 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


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LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


MAR  l  8  2008 

THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


AC 5  . D8  1906 
Draper,  A.  S.  (Andrew 

Sloan) , 

1848-1913 , 

Self  culture  for  young 
people . 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


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https://archive.org/details/selfcultureforyo04drap 


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IN  THE  YOSEMITE  VALLEY 


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and 


FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH 

is  shown  from  a  photograph  the  Cap  of  Liberty 
the  Nevada  Fall.  Of  this  valley  Horace  Greeley 


says  it  is  <Jthe  most  unique  and  majestic  of  Nature’s 
marvels.”  And  of  this  wonderful  dome  he  says: 


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Copyright,  190  6, 


BY 


FERD  P.  KAISER 


IIBRARY  Of  PRINCETON 


m  i  s  ?nt3 


YNEOLOGICAL  seminary 


SELF  CULTURE  FOR 
YOUNG  PEOPLE 


VOL.  IV 

EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL 
AND  INVENTION. 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 

MAR  2  8  2G08 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


I 


"I  Vf.  »«**  TH», *»««•> 


< 


SELF-CULTURE  FOR 
YOUNG  PEOPLE 

ANDREW  SLOAN  DRAPER,  LL.D. 

(Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  State  of  New  York) 
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

CHARLES  WELSH 

MANAGING  EDITOR 


A  PRELIMINARY  PARTIAL  LIST  OF  CONTRIBUTING  SPECIAL¬ 
ISTS,  ASSISTANT  EDITORS  AND  ADVISORS 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT,  LL.D., 

President  Harvard  University 

ARTHUR  T.  HADLEY,  LL.D., 

President  Yale  University 

WOODROW  WILSON,  LL.D., 

President  Princeton  University 

FREDERICK  W.  HAMILTON,  LL.D., 

President  Tufts  College 

J.  M.  TYLER,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  Biology,  Amherst  College 

RUSSELL  STURGIS, 

Art  Author  and  Critic,  New  York 

HON.  H.  SABIN, 

National  Educational  Association 

WEBSTER  MERRIFIELD,  A.M., 

President  University  of  North  Dakota 

CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  LL.D., 

Educator,  Economist,  Statistician,  Clark  University,  Worcester,  Mass. 

PROFESSOR  MAURICE  F.  EGAN,  LL.D., 

Professor  English  Language  and  Literature,  Catholic  University,  Wash. 

PROFESSOR  M.  V.  O’SHEA, 

Professor  of  Science  and  Art  of  Education,  University  of  Wisconsin 

PROFESSOR  FELIX  ADLER, 

President  New  York  Society  for  Ethical  Culture 

DAVID  STARR  JORDAN,  LL.D., 

President  Leland  Stanford  University 

G.  STANLEY  HALL,  LL.D., 

President  Clark  University 

CALVIN  M.  WOODWARD,  LL.D., 

President  Washington  University 

HENRY  S.  PRITCHETT,  LL.D., 

President  Institute  of  Technology,  Boston 

SIR  CASPAR  PURDON  CLARKE, 

Director  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York 

MRS.  KATE  DOUGLAS  WIGGIN, 

Kindergartner  and  Author  New  York 


MISS  SARAH  LOUISE  ARNOLD 

Dean  Simmons  College 


Boston. 


W.  T.  HORNADAY. 

Naturalist, 

PROFESSOR  W.  N.  HAILMANN, 

Dept,  of  Psychology, 

E.  S.  WILLCOX, 

Librarian, 

PROFESSOR  C.  F.  RICHARDSON, 

Professor  of  English  Literature, 

MISS  CLARA  LOUISE  ANDERSON, 

Composer  of  Kindergarten  Music. 

MISS  AMY  E.  TANNER, 

Professor  of  Philosophy, 

GEORGE  E.  DAWSON,  Ph.D., 

JOHN  BURROUGHS, 

Author  of  “Wake-Robin,”  “Pepacton,” 

MRS.  MARY  WOOD-ALLEN, 

Editor  of  “American  Motherhood.” 


General  Manager  New  York  Zoo 
Chicago  Normal  College 
Peoria,  Ill. 
Dartmouth  College 

Wilson  College,  Pa. 
Mt.  Holyoke  College 
“Far  and  Near,”  etc. 


MISS  CAROLYN  WELLS, 

Author  of  “A  Nonsense  Anthology,”  etc. 

MRS.  CARO  SMITH  SENOUR, 

Author  of  “Master  St.  Elmo,”  “Flower  Ballads  for  Children,” etc. 

MISS  KATHERINE  BEEBE, 

Kindergartner;  and  Author  of  many  popular  Kindergarten  Books. 

MISS  ANNIE  C.  RUST, 

Kindergartner,  Froebel  School  of  Kindergarten,  Boston. 

MISS  AMALIE  R.  HOFER, 

Kin  dergar  tner. 

C.  HANFORD  HENDERSON, 

Educator;  Author  of  “Education  and  the  Larger  Life,”  etc. 

MISS  ELIZABETH  P.  PEABODY, 

Pioneer  Kindergartner. 

MISS  MARGARET  A.  KELLY, 

Educator,  Michigan 

MISS  SUSAN  F.  CHASE, 

Educator,  Buffalo  Normal  School 

MISS  ANNA  CHAPIN  RAY, 

Author  of  “Half  a  Dozen  Boys,”  “Half  a  Dozen  Girls,”  and  Either 
popular  books  for  children. 

MISS  MARY  W.  PLUMMER, 

Librarian,  Pratt  Institute,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

PROFESSOR  T.  ZILLER, 

German  Pedagogue  and  Kindergartner. 


MRS.  DONALD  MacLEAN, 


President-General  D.  A.  R. 


MRS.  F.  G.  HENDERSON, 


President  United  Daughters  of  the  Confederacy 


H.  V.  SPEELMAN, 

HON.  WINSLOW  WARREN, 
MARCUS  M.  MARKS, 

E.  M.  FAIRCHILD, 

S.  F.  CROWELL, 

Miss  ANNA  B.  COMSTOCK, 

Naturalist  and  Artist, 

Mrs.  THEODORE  W.  BIRNEY, 
PROF.  L.  C.  SEELYE, 


Commander-in-Chief  Sons  of  Veterans 
Prest. -General  Society  of  the  Cincinnat 

New  York 

Of  the  Moral  Education  Board 
The  Library  Bureau,  Boston 
Cornell  University 
Founder  National  Congress  of  Mothers 


WALTER  CAMP 


President  Smith  College 
New  Haven.  Conti, 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Volume  IV. 

PAGB 

INTRODUCTION . 17 

By  Frederick  William  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Tufts  College. 

The  Progress  of  Discovery  from  the  Earliest  Times  Down  to 

the  Present . 21 

Lief  the  Lucky  and  the  Wineland  Voyages . 25 

By  Hauk  Erlendssen. 


Some  Early  Spanish  Discoveries  in  America . 32 

By  Brantz  Mayer. 

Christopher  .  Columbus . 51 

The  Discovery  of  Cuba . 65 

By  Maturin  M.  Ballon. 

First  Sight  of  the  Rocky  Mountains . 77 

By  Sir  William  F.  Butler. 

Toltec  Gorge . 82 

By  Ernest  Ingersoll. 

Audubon  as  Traveller  and  Explorer . 88 

The  Eldorado  of  the  Great  West . 103 

By  Archibald  Williams. 

The  Eldorado  of  the  North . 114 

By  Archibald  Williams. 

The  Peruvian  Andes . 127 

By  A.  Gallenga. 

The  Expedition  of  Baron  de  Bougainville . 137 

By  Jules  Verne. 

On  the  Nile  in  Central  Africa . 158 

By  Captain  J.  H.  Speke. 

Livingstone  and  Stanley  in  Africa . 167 

By  David  Livingstone. 

In  Khiva . 173 

By  A.  Vambery. 

A  Dash  for  Lassa . 186 

By  Sven  Hedin. 

In  and  About  Jerusalem  and  the  Dead  Sea . 202 

By  F.  W.  Lynch,  U.  S.  N. 

A  Visit  to  the  Rock  Temples  of  Ceylon . 223 

By  A.  H.  Hallam  Murray. 

Jungle  Life  in  Burma  . . .  .  229 

By  R.  Talbot  Kelly, 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

PAGE 

At  Home  in  Fiji . 242 

By  C.  F.  Gordon  Cumming. 

Christmas  in  the  Arctic  Regions . 252 

By  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  U.  S.  N. 

In  Frobisher  Bay . 259 

By  Charles  Francis  Hall. 

Progress  of  Inventions . 271 

Some  Distinguished  American  Inventors . 277 

Some  Statistics  about  Inventions . 279 

First  Steamboats,  Pioneer  Sailings  and  Earliest  Lines  .  .  .  280 

Agricultural  Machinery . 281 

By  Archibald  Williams. 

Some  Wonders  of  the  Railroad . 290 

I.  The  Union  Pacific. 

II.  The  Canadian  Pacific. 

By  Archibald  Williams. 

Some  American  Bridges . 304 

By  A.  Williams. 

The  Beginning  of  Balloons . 315 

By  John  Alexander. 

Calculating  Machines . 322 

By  A.  Williams. 

Electricity  and  Magnetism . 333 

I.  What  is  Electricity? 

II.  What  is  Magnetism? 

III.  How  Magnetism  is  Related  to  Electricity. 

By  Charles  R.  Gibson. 

Story  of  the  Atlantic  Cable . 346 

By  Cyrus  West  Field. 

The  Rontgen  Rays . 356 

By  F.  M.  Holmes. 

Radium  and  Radio-Activity . 367 

Self-Culture  Questions . 372 

One  Hundred  of  the  Best  Books  of  Exploration,  Travel  and 

Invention . 374 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Volume  IV. 

Grandeurs  of  the  West  —  In  the  Yosemite  Valley.  (Photo¬ 
gravure)  . Frontispiece. 

PAGE 

In  Beautiful  Venice.  (Color  Plate) . 15 

Waiting  the  Return  of  the  Traveler . 33 

From  the  painting  by  Edith  Hume. 

A  Street  Scene  in  Cuba . 67 

From  a  photograph. 

Pike's  Peak  Railway . 79 

From  a  photograph. 

Upper  Saranac  Lake  and  Lake  Champlain . 89 

From  a  photograph. 

The  Thousand  Islands . 101 

From  a  photograph. 

Prospector  and  Miner . 109 

From  a  photograph. 

Homeward  Bound . 155 

From  a  photograph. 

The  Garden  of  Gethsemane . 209 

From  a  photograph. 

The  Highway  to  the  East.  (The  Suez  Canal) . 221 

From  a  photograph. 

Elephants  Piling  Teak . 239 

From  a  photograph. 

Fiji  Native  Village . 247 

From  a  photograph. 

Nils  Adolph  Erik  Nordenskjold . 253 

After  the  painting  by  Rosen. 

Men  of  Progress . 269 

From  an  engraving  published  by  the  Scientific  American. 

Harvesting  Machinery . 287 

From  a  photograph. 

Brooklyn  Bridge . 305 

From  a  photograph. 

Assembling  the  Parts  of  a  Calculating  Machine  ....  325 
From  a  photograph. 


INTRODUCTION. 


•  BY 

Frederick  William  Hamilton, 

PRESIDENT  OP  TUFTS  COLLEGE,  MASS. 

[The  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  was 
born  at  Portland,  Me.,  March  30,  1860,  fitted  for  college 
in  the  Portland  High  School;  entered  Tufts,  whence  he 
wras  graduated  in  1880.  After  some  experience  in  com¬ 
mercial  life,  in  1889  he  returned  to  Tufts  to  take  a 
special  course  in  theology.  Pie  entered  the  Universalist 
ministry  in  1890,  and  his  first  settlement  was  as  pastor 
of  the  Universalist  Church  in  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  where 
lie  remained  five  years.  In  1895  he  accepted  a  call  to 
the  First  PTniversalist  Church  of  Roxbury.  Presi¬ 
dent  of  Tufts  College  since  April  1,  1905.  In  1899 
Tufts  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  D.  D.  St. 
Lawrence  University  conferred  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
upon  him  in  1906.  He  is  the  author  of  11  The  Church 
and  Secular  Life.”] 

Exploration,  Travel,  and  Invention  are  three  phases  of  man’s  un¬ 
ceasing  search  for  the  unknown.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
human  instincts,  one  of  those  also  which  most  sharply  differentiate 
man  from  the  other  animals,  is  this  constant  desire  to  penetrate  the 
unknown,  to  solve  the  mysteries  which  lie  all  about  us.  Humanity 
has  never  learned  to  be  quiescent  in  the  face  of  mystery. 

From  the  earliest  times  of  human  record  and  far  anterior  to  any 
written  history,  man  has  always  wondered  what  lay  beyond  the  en¬ 
circling  forest,  the  mountain-ringed  horizon,  the  uncompassing  sea. 
The  more  daring,  not  content  with  wondering  at  the  mystery,  have  ad¬ 
venturously  striven  to  solve  it.  Often  and  again  the  wilderness  of 
forest  or  of  wave  has  swallowed  them  up,  and  no  word  has  ever  come 
back  of  their  discoveries  or  of  their  sufferings.  Now  and  again,  how¬ 
ever,  success  has  crowned  their  efforts  and  they  have  returned  to  tell 
of  the  wonders  they  have  seen,  to  bring  back  strange  weapons  and 
articles  of  use  or  adornment,  and  to  point  the  way  for  others  to 
follow. 

No  extremes  of  climate,  no  lack  of  materials  for  human  suste¬ 
nance,  no  dangers  from  savage  beasts  or  still  more  savage  men, 
Vol.  IV  — 2  17 


18 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


have  served  to  daunt  these  hold  spirits.  No  page  of  the  world’s 
history  is  more  fascinating  and  instructive  or  more  glorious  with 
the  record  of  heroism  and  high  endeavor  than  that  which  tells  the 
story  of  exploration.  From  the  days  when  the  Argonauts  sailed 
in  quest  of  the  golden  fleece  through  the  time  when  Columbus  and 
Magellan  added  a  half  to  the  world,  to  the  days  when  Peary  and 
Wellman  are  using  all  the  resources  of  modern  science  and  inven¬ 
tion  in  the  service  of  exploration,  the  search  has  gone  on  and  it 
will  never  cease  so  long  as  there  is  a  foot  of  the  earth’s  surface 
which  hides  a  secret  not  known  to  man. 

What  a  wonderful  record  it  is,  this  story  of  the  gradual  subjuga¬ 
tion  of  the  earth  to  human  occupancy  and  use !  Much  of  it  is  written, 
but  much  can  never  be  written.  Recent  excavations  in  Crete  show 
that  in  the  prehistoric  period  of  Greek  civilization  there  were  in  use 
in  the  Mediterranean  lands  articles  of  amber  which  could  have  come 
only  from  the  shores  of  the  Baltic.  What  would  we  not  give  to  have 
the  records  of  the  explorers  who  forced  their  way  through  the  dense 
and  inhospitable  forests  of  those  early  days  until  they  opened  com¬ 
munication  between  the  sunny  South  and  the  rugged  North?  Surehy 
we  would  give  much  to  know  the  experiences  and  the  impressions  of 
the  Phoenicians  who  voyaged  to  South  Africa  and  laid  bare  the  riches 
of  that  wonderful  land. 

The  blood  stirs  now  at  the  thought  of  adventuring  in  strange 
waters  and  pathless  lands,  but  we  know  well  enough  the  general 
size  and  configuration  of  the  earth,  the  dimensions  of  its  continents 
and  the  location  of  its  seas.  Nothing  but  the  insatiable  instinct  of 
discovery  could  have  nerved  men  to  enter  a  wilderness  of  whose 
ultimate  limits  they  had  no  means  of  forming  the  slightest  concep¬ 
tion  or  to  sail  steadily  forward  for  days  and  weeks  over  a  trackless 
waste  of  apparently  limitless  seas,  seas  which  so  far  as  they  in 
their  general  ignorance  knew  might  well  have  no  shore  beyond  them. 

Many  a  stirring  tale,  however,  is  recorded  for  us.  We  may  sail 
the  unknown  western  seas  with  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  century 
navigators.  We  may  search  for  spice  islands  and  fountains  of 
youth  and  inexhaustible  mines  with  those  who  gave  themselves  to 
such  quests.  We  may  follow  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  those  who 
sought  the  northwest  passage  and  the  pole.  We  may  thread  the 
African  jungles  with  Livingston  and  Speke  and  Burton.  We  may 
accompany  the  pathfinders  who  opened  the  North  American  conti¬ 
nent  to  civilization.  We  may  share  the  adventures  of  those  who  have 
boldly  torn  aside  the  veil  with  which  Japanese  and  Thibetan  tried  to 
exclude  the  outside  world. 

Many  of  the  best  of  these  accounts  are  reprinted  in  this  volume, 


INTRODUCTION 


19 


and  the  sources  are  indicated  where  others  may  be  found  and  where 
the  whole  story  of  exploration  may  be  learned.  The  aim  of  the 
Editor  has  been  not  so  much  to  attempt  to  cover  the  whole  field  as 
to  indicate  the  extent,  variety,  and  interest  of  it,  to  stimulate  the 
desire  for  further  knowledge  of  it,  and  to  indicate  with  some  full¬ 
ness  the  sources  where  such  knowledge  may  be  obtained. 

The  associated  subjects  dealt  with  in  this  volume  are  included  by 
logical  relation.  It  is  difficult  to  draw  a  line  between  exploration 
and  what  is  more  commonly  recognized  as  travel.  Even  in  these 
days  of  the  Atlantic  ferry,  every  traveller  feels  himself  to  be,  at 
least  as  far  as  he  is  personally  concerned,  an  explorer.  Next  to  the 
delight  of  piercing  the  unknown  is  that  of  seeing  the  unfamiliar. 
The  ways,  speech,  dress,  architecture,  in  a  word  the  whole  life  of 
the  people  of  other  lands,  possesses  great  fascination  for  all  men. 
So  infinite  are  the  variations  thus  to  be  noted  in  natural  life  and 
characteristics  that  books  of  travel  never  lose  their  interest.  This  is 
not  only  true  of  travel  in  the  less  known  regions  of  the  world  but  it 
is  almost  or  quite  equally  true  of  travel  in  those  j:>arts  of  the  world 
which  would  seem  to  be  most  familiar. 

The  reading  of  such  books  is  not  only  a  source  of  great  pleasure 
but  is  a  most  important  element  in  education  as  well.  Without  dis¬ 
paraging  any  of  the  more  technical  aspects  of  education,  it  remains 
true  that  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man.  No  man  is  widely  or 
even  well  educated  who  has  not  some  knowledge,  the  more  extended 
the  better,  of  the  life  of  these  men  in  other  lands.  Travel,  admittedly 
the  best  of  educations,  is  beyond  the  reach  of  most  persons.  Books  of 
travel,  those  books  which,  with  the  aid  of  imagination,  familiarize  us 
with  other  life  and  make  us  truly  citizens  of  the  world,  are  within  the 
reach  of  all.  Such  work  as  the  Editor  has  done,  setting  these  books 
in  their  true  relation  to  progress  and  stimulating  larger  interest  in 
them,  is  of  the  very  highest  educational  value. 

It  was  a  happy  thought  to  include  invention  with  exploration  and 
travel.  It  is  another  striking  phrase  of  the  same  age-long  search 
for  the  unknown.  The  same  spirit  which  could  not  rest  content 
without  knowing  what  was  behind  the  blue-black  bulk  of  the  moun¬ 
tain  range,  or  beyond  the  shimmering  plain  of  the  sea,  was  equally 
restless  until  it  had  learned  the  character,  meaning,  and  use  of  the 
forces  of  nature.  The  great  inventors  are  great  explorers,  only  in 
another  of  the  world’s  houses  of  mystery.  The  workers  in  scientific 
fields,  enriching  mankind  with  the  fruits  of  their  discoveries,  are 
travellers  in  unknown  realms  bringing  back  the  results  of  their  obser¬ 
vations  and  opening  the  way  for  others.  The  Morses  and  Bells,  the 


20 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Roentgens  and  Marconis,  are  the  Columbuses  and  Cabots,  the  Ma- 
gellans  and  Livingstons  of  science. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  great  discoveries  in  exploration 
and  invention  have  been  motived  by  mercenary  considerations  alone. 
No  doubt  such  considerations  have  played  a  part  in  these  things, 
especially  in  providing  the  funds  to  equip  the  expeditions  and  to 
conduct  the  researches.  But  it  may  be  confidently  claimed  that  all 
the  important  basic  discoveries  in  both  lines  of  endeavor  would  have 
been  made  had  there  been  no  pecuniary  gain  in  prospect.  Curiosity 
is  a  primary  human  instinct.  Avarice  is  a  secondary  human  charac¬ 
teristic.  The  centuries-long  search  for  the  pole  has  not  been  a 
search  for  wealth,  and  Benjamin  Eranklin,  that  most  commonsensible 
of  Poor  Richards,  did  not  fly  his  immortal  kite  for  profit.  The 
spirit  of  adventure  has  often  been  allied  with  the  thirst  for  gold, 
but  has  ever  been  the  stronger  passion  of  the  two.  These  things 
are  worth  remembering  in  a  time  like  ours,  when  mercenary  con¬ 
siderations  count  for  so  much  and  mercenary  motives  are  so  often 
said  to  rule  mankind. 

Science  like  exploration  has  had  its  heroes  and  its  martyrs.  Its 
annals  too  are  glorious  with  the  records  of  lofty  endeavor  and  high 
courage  and  noble  self-sacrifice.  The  search  for  the  pole  is  equaled 
in  fascinating  interest  by  the  search  for  the  ultimate  constitution  of 
matter,  and  both  so  far  have  proved  equally  baffling.  The  discovery 
of  electricity  as  an  agent  available  for  human  needs  was  as  remark¬ 
able  as  the  circumnavigation  of  the  world,  and  the  discovery  of 
radium  and  radio-activity  as  romantic  as  the  discovery  of  Australia. 

The  volume  before  us  deals  in  a  most  stimulating  way  with  the 
wonders  and  the  romances  of  scientific  discovery.  A  reading  of  it 
cannot  fail  to  stimulate  an  intelligent  interest  in  those  familiar,  yet 
mysterious,  marvels  of  modern  science.  It  has  certainly  been  a  valu¬ 
able  service  to  the  reading  public,  especially  the  younger  portion 
whose  interests  are  yet  to  be  determined  and  tastes  to  be  formed,  to 
place  within  convenient  compass  so  much  that  is  stimulating  and 
at  the  same  time  to  indicate  so  clearly  the  lines  of  future  reading. 
It  is  a  real  service  to  the  course  of  education. 

Frederick  William  Hamilton, 

President  Tufts  College. 


EXPLORATION, 
TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION. 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISCOVERY 

From  the  Earliest  Times  Down  to  the  Present. 


[This  table  tvill  not  only  be  useful  for  reference ,  but  will  guide  the  student  toho  wishes 
to  study  any  particxdar  field ,  or  any  particular  period  of  exploration.  Not  one  of 
them  could  be  entirely  covered  in  this  book  but  they  are  all  represented  here ,  and 
with  the  aid  of  the  list  of  one  hundred  of  the  best  books  at  the  end  of  the  volume  the 
reader  should  have  no  difficulty  in  following  any  line  he  wishes .] 


Date. 


Explorer  and  Nationality. 


Discovery  or  Exploration. 


B.C. 

1400-1250 
?  1350 
1000 
750 

700 

GOO 

500 


470 

330 

U 

329-325 

290 

218 

about  120 
61-58 
since  30 

20 

15 

A.D. 

84 

150 

518-21 

G71-95 

861 

865 

876 

985 

?1000 


1154 

about  1200 
1253 


Egyptians . 

Greeks . 

Phoenicians . 

Greeks . 

Samians . 

Phoenicians . 

Himilco  (Carthag.) . 

Anaximander  (of  Miletus) . 

Hecataeus  (of  Miletus) . 

Hanno  (Carthag.) . 

Pytheas  of  Massilia . 

Nearchus  (Macedon.) . 

Alexander  the  Great . 

Egyptians . 

Romans . 

Eudoxus  of  Cyzicus . 

Romans . 

Romans . 

Strabo  (Greek) . 

Romans .  . . 

Romans . 

Claudius  Ptolemy  (Egypt.) . 

Hoei-sing  (Chinese).  ... _ 

I-tsing  (Chinese) . 

Norsemen . 

Naddod  (Norse) . 

Gunnbjorn  (Norse) . 

Erik  the  Red  (Norse) . 

Lyef  (Lief)  Erickson  (son  J 
of  Erik  the  Red) . | 

Edrisi  (Sicily) . 

Arabs . . . 

Ruysbroek . 


Invasions  of  Habesh,  Arabia,  Phoenicia,  Syria. 

Argocautic  expedition  to  Colchis. 

Voyages  to  Ophir,  Gades,  Britain. 

Extension  of  Colonies  in  the  Mediterranean  and 
Pontus  Euxinus. 

Spain  (Tartessus)  discovered  for  the  Greeks. 

Circumnavigation  of  Africa  by  order  of  Necho. 

Atlantic  coasts  of  Europe.  Sargasso  Sea.  Said 
to  have  visited  Britain. 

Makes  the  first  maps. 

Writes  the  first  geography 

West  Africa  as  far  as  Cape  Palmas. 

?  Thule,  North  Sea,  Scandinavia. 

Sails  from  the  Indus  to  Red  Sea. 

Expedition  to  Iran,  Turan  and  India. 

Navigate  the  East  Coast  of  Africa. 

Hannibal  crosses  the  Alps. 

Attempts  circumnavigation  of  Africa. 

Julius  Caesar  in  Gaul,  Germany,  and  Britain. 

Extension  of  geographical  knowledge  and  com¬ 
merce  as  far  as  Central  Asia. 

Describes  Roman  Empire  and  first  mentions 
Thule  and  Ireland. 

Tiberius  discovers  the  Lake  of  Constance;  Dru- 
sus,  the  Brenner  Pass. 

Agricola  circumnavigates  Britain. 

Constructs  his  Geography  and  Atlas. 

Visits  Pamirs  and  Punjab. 

Visits  Java,  Sumatra,  and  India 

Faroe  Islands.  North  Cape  of  Europe  rounded. 

Discovers  Iceland.  Visited  by  Irish  monks  about 
795. 

Greenland  coast.  Rediscovered  by  Erik  the 
Red  (983). 

Colonizes  Greenland. 

Discovers  New  Foundland  (Helluland),  Nova 
Scotia  (Markland),  and  coast  of  New  England 
(Vinland)  [?]. 

Geographer  to  King  of  Sicily,  produces  his 
geography. 

Trading  merchants  discover  Siberia. 

Reaches  Karakorum,  the  ancient  seat  of  the 
Mongol  Empire. 


Adapted  from  The  Scientific  American  Year  Book.  Copyright  by  permission. 

21 


22 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Date. 


Explorer  and  Nationality. 


Discovery  or  Exploration. 


A.D. 

1271-95 

Marco  Polo  (Venet.) . 

1290 

Genoese  . 

1325-52 

Ibn  Batuta  (Arab.) . 

1327 

Sir  John  Mandeville  (Eng.) . 

1415-GO 

Prince  Henry  (Port.) . 

1419-20 

J.  Gonzales  and  Martin  | 
Vaz  (Port.) . ) 

1442 

Nuno  Tristao  (Port.) . 

?  1460 

Cintra  and  Costa  (Port.). . . . 

1474 

Toscanelli  (Ital.) . 

1485 

Diego  Cam  (Port.) . 

1487  . 

Bartholomew  Diaz  (Port.).. 

1492-98 

Columbus  (Gen.) . 

1497-98 

Giovanni  Cabot  (Anglo- ) 
Ven.) . f 

1498 

Vasco  da  Gama  (Port.) . 

1499 

Amerigo  Vespucci  (Ital.) . . . 

1499 

Pinzon  (Span.) . 

1500 

G.  Cortereal  (Port.) . 

it 

Alvarez  Cabral  (Port.) . 

1502 

Columbus  (Gen.) . 

1506 

Denys  (French) . 

1512 

Ponce  de  Leon  (Span.) . 

1513 

Portuguese .  . 

1513 

Balboa  (Span.) . 

1516 

Solis  (Span.) . 

1517 

Sebastian  Cabot  (Eng.) . 

1517 

Cordova  (Span.) . 

1518 

Grijalva  (Span.) . 

1520 

De  Ayllon  (Span.) . 

1519-21 

Cortez  (Span.) . 

1519-21 

Magellan  (Span.) . 

1524 

Verrazani  (French) . 

1528 

Narvaez  (Span.) . 

1534 

Pizzaro  (Span.) . 

1535 

Diego  d’Almagro  (Span.) . . . 

1535-42 

Jacques  Cartier  (Fr.) . 

1539 

Francesco  de  Ulloa  (Span.). 

1539-42 

De  Soto  (Span.) . 

• 

about  1540 

French . 

1540 

Coronado  (Span.) . 

1541 

Pizarro  and  Orellana  | 
(Span.) . f 

1542 

Antonio  de  Mota . 

it 

Ruy  Lopez  de  Villalobos.. 
(Span.) 

it 

Pinto  (Port.) . 3. 

it 

Cabrillo  (Span.) . 

1553 

Sir  H.  Willoughby  (Eng.). 

1576 

Frobisher  (Eng.) . 

1577-80 

Sir  F.  Drake  (Eng.) . 

1584 

Amidas  and  Barlow  (Eng.) 

1587 

J.  Davis  (Eng.) . 

1596 

Barentz  and  Heemskerlc  1 
(Dut.) . f 

1598 

Mendana  (Span.) . 

Gosnold  (Eng.) . 

1G02 

1606 

Quiros  (Span.) . 

it 

Torres  (Span.) . 

Travels  in  Central  Asia,  Chiua,  India,  Persia. 

Canaries,  Azores,  etc. 

Travels  through  the  whole  Mohammedan  World, 
N.  Africa,  E.  Africa,  S.  Russia,  Arabia,  India 
and  China. 

?  Travels  in  India. 

Gives  an  impetus  to  Portuguese  voyages  of  dis¬ 
covery. 

Porto  Santo  and  Madeira  discovered. 

Cape  Yerde,  etc. 

Coast  of  Guinea  reached. 

Sends  Columbus  his  map  showing  the  western 
route  to  Cathay  (China). 

Mouth  of  the  Congo  reached. 

Rounds  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

America,  West  Indies,  Trinidad,  Cuba,  etc. 

Sails  along  E.  Coast  of  America  from  Labrador 
as  far  as  Florida. 

Route  to  India  by  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

Venezuela,  and  that  America  was  not  “  part  of 
Asia.” 

Discovers  mouth  of  R.  Amazon  and  Cape  St. 
Roque. 

Reaches  entrance  of  Hudson  Strait,  called  by 
him  Strait  of  Anian. 

Brazil  (named  by  him  Ilha  da  Vera  Cruz,  being 
S.  part  of  Bahia  State). 

Central  America  on  his  fourth  voyage. 

Explored  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence. 

Florida. 

Reach  the  Moluccas. 

Crosses  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  discovers  Pacific 
Ocean. 

Reaches  La  Plata. 

Hudson  Strait. 

Explored  Yucatan. 

Mexico. 

Carolina. 

Conquest  of  Mexico. 

First  to  circumnavigate  the  globe.  Passes 
through  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  crosses  the 
Pacific,  and  discovers  the  Philippines. 

U.  S.  north  of  Cape  Fear. 

Explored  Florida. 

Completes  the  Conquest  of  Peru. 

Conquers  Chili. 

Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  Ascends  river  to  Hoclie- 
laga  (Montreal). 

Explores  Gulf  of  California. 

Southern  U.  S.  and  discovered  the  Mississippi 
River. 

Continent  of  Australia  seen  by  French  sailors. 

New  Mexico  and  Arizona. 

Amazon  River. 

First  reaches  Japan. 

Discovers  Pelew  Island,  and  takes  possession  of 
Philippine  Islands  for  Spain. 

Visits  Japan. 

Pacific  Coast  of  U.  S. 

Novaia  Zembla. 

Labrador  and  Baffin  Land. 

Second  circumnavigation  of  the  globe,  and  first 
saw  Cape  Horn.  Explored  W.  coast  of  N. 
America  nearly  as  far  as  Vancouver  Archi¬ 
pelago. 

Explored  Albemarle  Sound  and  Roanoke  I. 

Davis  Strait. 

Spitzbergen,  Bear  Island,  etc. 

Discovers  Marquesas  Islands. 

Discovered  coast  of  Massachusetts.  Shortened 
route  across  Atlantic. 

Tahita  (Sagittaria),  and  other  South  Sea  Islands. 

Torres  Strait.  Dutch  reach  Australia. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  DISCOVERY 


23 


Date. 


Explorer  and  Nationality. 


Discovery  or  Exploration. 


A.D. 

1608 

1609 

1610 
1614-17 

1616 

U 

1618 

1642 

1643 
1645 
1660 
1673 
1682 

1725-43 
1728  and  41 

1740-44 

1768-79 


1770 

fcl 

1776-9 

1785-88 

1789 

1792 


1795-1806 

1799-1804 

1801-1804 

1803-6 

1805-9 

1807-8 

1819 

44 

1825 

1819 

1819 

1823 

1823 

1825-26 

1827-8 

1829 

1830-32 

1830 

1831 

1832 
1833-35 

1835 

1837 

1837-40 

1839 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1841-73 

1844-45 

1845 

1848 

1849-55 

1850 

1852-4,1861 

1856-59 


Champlain  (French) . 

Henry  Hudson  (Eng.) . 

Henry  Hudson  (Eng.) . 

Spillbergen  (Dut.) . 

W.  Baffin  (Eng.) . 

LeMaireand  Schouten  (Dut.) 

Dirk  Hartog  (Dut.) . 

G.  Thompson  (Eng.  mer.). 

Abel  Tasman  (Dut.) . 

Vries  (Dut.) . 

Deshnev  (Cossack) . 

French . 

Marquette  and  Joliet  (Fr.). 

La  Salle  (French) . 

Russians . 

Bering  (Dan.)  and  I 

Tishirikov  (Rus.) . j 

Anson  (Eng.) . 

Capt.  Cook  (Eng.) . 


James  Bruce  (Scot.) . 

Liakhov  (Russian) . 

Bougainville,  L.  A.  de 

(French) . 

La  Perouse  (French) . 

A.  Mackenzie  (Scot.) . 

Vancouver  (Eng.) . 


Mungo  Park  (Scot.) . 

Alex,  von  Humboldt  (Ger.). 

Flinders  (Eng.).  . . 

Lewis  &  Clarke  (Am.) . 

Salt  (Eng.) . 

Klaproth  (Ger.) . 

SirE.  Parry  (Eng.) . 

Sir  J.  Franklin . 1 

Richardson  and  Back  > 

(Eng.) . j 

Long  (U.  S.) . 

Wm.  Smith  (Eng.) . 

Wrangel  (Rus.) . 

Denham  and  Clapperton  ( 

(Eng.) . j 

A.  G.  Laing  (Scot.) . 

Rene  Caillie  (French) . 

Sturt  (Eng.) . 

Biscoe  (Eng.) . 


Sir  J.  C.  Ross  (Eng.) . 

Laird  and  Oldfield  (Scot.). . 

Sir  G.  Back  (Eng.) . 

Sir  F.  Schomburgk  (Ger.).. 

Wood  (Eng.) . 

D’Urville  (French) . 

J.  Balleny  (Eng.) . 

Eyre  (Eng.) . 

Trtimmer . 

Sir  James  C.  Ross  (Eng.). . . 

D.  Livingstone  (Scot.) . 

Leichhardt  (Ger.) . 

Sir  John  Franklin  (Eng.).. 
Rebmann  andKrapf  (Ger.). 
Richardson  and  Barth  I 

(Eng. -Ger.) . j 

Sir  R.  M’Clure  (Irish) . 

Sir  C.  R.  Markham  (Eng.).. 
Du  Chaillu  (French) . 


Discovers  Lake  Ontario. 

Explores  Hudson  River,  N.  America. 

Discovers  Hudson’s  Bay. 

Circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 

Entei's  Baffin  Bay. 

Round  Cape  Horn. 

West  coast  of  Australia. 

Sails  up  Gambia. 

Van  Diemen ’s  Land  (Tasmania)  and  New  Zealand. 
Explores  E.  coast  Japan,  Saghalien,  and  Kurile  Is. 
Rounds  East  Cape  of  Asia. 

Lake  region  of  the  St.  Lawrence  discovered. 
Exploration  of  the  Mississippi  from  the  north. 
Sailed  to  mouth  of  Mississippi  River. 
Exploration  of  the  coasts  of  Siberia. 

Bering  Strait  and  the  NW.  coast  of  America. 

Circumnavigates  the  globe. 

Voyages  round  the  world.  Hydrographical  sur* 
vevs  of  the  Society  Islands,  Sandwich  Islands,  E. 
coast  of  Australia,  Cook  Strait  in  New  Zealand, 
Antarctic  Ocean,  NW.  coast  of  America,  etc. 
Sources  of  the  Blue  Nile. 

Discovers  New  Siberian  Islands. 

First  French  circumnavigator. 

North  of  Japan,  Saghalien,  etc. 

Exploration  of  the  Mackenzie  River. 

Vancouver  Island  circumnavigated.  Discovered 
by  Perez,  1774.  Exploration  of  NW.  coast  of 
America. 

Journeys  and  explorations  in  the  Niger  districts. 
Explorations  in  South  America  and  “  Cosmos.” 
Southern  coasts  of  Australia. 

Expedition  to  the  Pacific. 

Visit  to  Abyssinia. 

Exploration  of  the  Caucasus. 

Parry  Archipelago. 

Coppermine  and  Mackenzie  Rivers  explored. 

Exploration  of  Rocky  Mountains. 

South  Orkney  Islands  and  South  Shetlands. 

Visited  by  Weddell  iu  1822. 

Discovers  Wrangel  Land. 

Lake  Chad. 

Reached  Timbuktu  from  Tripoli. 

Journey  from  Kakandy  to  Timbuktu  and  Mo¬ 
rocco. 

Descends  the  Murrumbidgee  and  discovers  the 
Murray  River. 

Enderby  Land  and  Graham  Land. 

Royal  Geographical  Society  founded  in  London. 
Magnetic  North  Pole. 

Exploration  of  the  Niger  and  Benue. 

Great  Fish  River. 

Explorations  in  Guiana. 

Sources  of  the  Oxus. 

Adelie  Land.  Reached  66°  3C'  S.  lat. 

Balleny  Islands,  66°  44'  S.  lat. 

Discovers  Lake  Torrens,  S.  Australia,  and  in  1841 
journeys  from  Adelaide  to  King  George’s  Sound. 
Remains  of  ancient  Nineveh. 

Victoria  Land,  with  volcanoes  Erebus  and 
Terror. 

Thirty  years’  travel  in  Central  South  Africa. 
Crosses  Australia,  Moreton  Bay  to  Port  Essing- 
ton. 

Sails  on  his  last  voyage  never  to  return. 

Mt.  Kilima  Njaro.  Sighted  Mt.  Kenia. 

Western  Sudan  and  Sahara. 

Northwest  Passage. 

Exploration  in  Peru. 

Basin  of  Ogowe  River,  W.  Africa. 


24 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Date. 

Explorer  and  Nationality. 

A.D. 

1858 

Sir  R.  Burton  (Scot.) . 

Speke  and  Grant  (Brit.) .... 

1860 

Sir  S.  Baker  (Eng.) . 

1862 

M’Donall  Stuart  (Scot.) . 

1862-63 

W.  G.  Palgrave  (Eng.) . 

1864-66 

G.  Rohlfs  (Ger.) . 

1867-72 

Richthofen  (Ger.) . 

1868-71 

G.  Schweinfurth  (Ger.) . 

1869 

G.  Nachtigal  (Ger.) . 

1870-1886 

Prejevalsky  (Rus.) . 

1871-75 

Leigh  Smith  (Eng.) . 

1872 

Payer  and  Weyprecht  } 

1872-76 

(Austrian) . j 

“  Challenger  ”  Expedition 

1872-76 

(Brit.) . 

Ernest  Giles . 

1873 

Warburton,  E.  (Irish) . 

1874-75 

Lieut.  Cameron  (Eng.) . 

1876 

De  Breeze  (French) . 

1876-90 

H.  M.  Stanley  (Eng.) . 

1876 

Sir  George  Nares  and ) 

1878-79 

A.  H.  Markham  (Eng.)  j 
Nordenskjold  (Swed.) . 

lb78-89 

Thomson  (Scot.) . 

1878-85 

Major  Serpa  Pinto  (Port  ). . 

1878-92 

Emin  Pasha  (Ger.) . 

1879 

Moustier  and  Zweifel  I 

1881-85 

(Swiss.) . j 

General  Greely  (U.  S.) . 

1885 

Wiesmann  (Ger.) . 

It 

Junker  (Rus. -Ger.) . 

1886 

Peary.  R.  E.  (U.  S.) . 

1887 

Capt.  Younghusband  ( 

1893-96 

(Eng.) . f 

Nansen  (Norw.) . 

1897 

Jackson  (Scot.) . 

1893-97 

Sven  Hedin  (Swed.) . 

1895-96 

Pr.  Henri  d’Orleans . 

1896 

Donaldson  Smith  (Scot.)... 

1896-98 

Capt.  Marchand  (Fr.) . 

1897 

Andree  (Swed.) . 

1897 

D.  Carnegie  (Scot.) . 

1898-99 

De  Gerlache  (Belgian) . 

1899 

Major  Gibbons . 

1900 

Borchgrevink  (Brit.  Ex.)... 

Duke  of  Abruzzi  (Ital.) . 

1900-02 

Sven  Hedin  (Swed.) . 

1903 

Sir  John  Evans  (Eng.) . 

1905 

Theodore  M.  Davis . 

Discovery  or  Exploration. 


Lake  Tanganyika. 

Victoria  Nyanza. 

Explores  Upper  Nile.  Discovers  Albert  Nyanza, 
1864. 

Crossed  Australia. 

Journeys  in  Central  and  Eastern  Arabia. 
Journey  in  W.  Sudan  by  Ghadames,  Murzuk,  and 
Wadai  to  R.  Niger.  , 

Extensive  travel  and  exploration  in  China. 
Exploration  of  the  Jur,  Niam-Niam,  and  Mon- 
buttu  countries. 

Explorations  in  Lake  Chad  region  and  Central 
Sudan  States. 

Journeys  in  Mongolia,  Tibet,  etc. 

Exploration  of  N.  part  of  Spitzbergen.  Vaigats  Is 

Franz  Joseph  Land. 

Explores  the  depths  of  the  oceans. 

Traverses  Northwest  Australia. 

Crosses  Western  Australia  from  East  to  West. 
Crosses  Equatorial  Africa. 

Explorations  in  the  Ogowe  and  Gabun  region. 
Congo  Basin;  Mt.  Ruwenzori;  Forests  on  the 
Aruwimi,  etc. 

Grant  Land.  Penetrated  as  far  N.  as  83°  20'  lat. 
Northeast  passage. 

Journeys  through  Masai  Land,  British  South 
Africa,  Sokoto,  Morocco,  etc. 

Twice  crosses  Africa. 

Travels  and  Surveys  in  Equatorial  Africa.  Dis¬ 
covery  of  Semliki  River,  etc. 

Sources  of  the  Niger. 

Grinnell  Land  and  NE.  coast  of  Greenland. 
Across  Africa  from  West  coast,  Congo  Basin. 
Welle-Mobangi,  etc. 

North  Greenland. 

Travels  from  Pekin  to  Kashmir. 

Hviotenland,  etc.;  reaches  his  “  Farthest  North” 
in  lat.  86°  13'  6"  N. 

Surveys  and  explorations  in  Franz  Josef  Land. 
Explorations  in  North  Central  Asia. 

Travels  in  Tonkin  and  China. 

Explores  region  of  Lake  Rudolf. 

Travels  from  Upper  Mobangi  to  Fashoda. 
Attempt  to  cross  over  the  North  Pole  in  a 
balloon  with  fatal  results. 

Crosses  Western  Australia  from  S.  to  N. 
“Belgica,”  first  ship  to  winter  within  Antarctic 
circle. 

Explorations  in  Congo  and  Zambezi  headwaters. 
Reached  lat.  78°  50'  S.  via  Victoria  Land. 
Reached  lat.  86°  33'  N  via  Franz  Josef  Land. 
Important  Journey  in  Central  Asia. 
Archeological  discoveries  in  Crete. 

Important  discoveries  in  Egypt. 


LEIF,  THE  LUCKY,  AND  THE  WINELAND  VOY¬ 
AGES. 


BY 


Hauk  Erlendsson. 
Translated  by  A.  M.  Reeves. 


According  to  the  Ancient  Sagas  Leif  Ericson  sailed  from  Green¬ 
land  about  1000  a.  d.  with  35  men  in  search  of  a  land  seen  20  years 
before  by  one  Herjulfson.  He  discovered  what  is  supposed  to  be 
the  coast  of  New  England  which  he  named  Yin  or  Vine-land  because 


of  the  grape-vines  he  found  there.  An  ideal  statue  of  him  by  Anne 


Whitney  is  erected  in  Boston,  Mass. 

'}  ^  RXC  was  married  to  a  woman  named  Thorhild  and 
had  two  sons :  one  of  these  was  named  Thorstein, 


and  the  other  Leif.  They  were  both  promising 
men.  Thorstein  lived  at  home  with  his  father,  and  there 
was  not  at  that  time  a  man  in  Greenland  who  was  ac¬ 
counted  of  so  great  promise  as  he.  Leif  had  sailed  to 
Norway,  where  lie  was  at  the  court  of  King  Olaf 
Tryggvason. 

He  was  well  received  by  the  king,  who  felt  that  he 
could  see  that  Leif  was  a  man  of  great  accomplishments. 
Upon  one  occasion  the  king  came  to  speech  with  Leif, 
and  asked  him,  “  Is  it  thy  purpose  to  sail  to  Greenland  in 
the  summer  ?  ’  *  “  It  is  my  purpose, 9  ’  said  Leif,  “  if  it 
be  your  will.”  “  I  believe  it  will  be  well,”  answers  the 
king,  ‘  ‘  and  thither  thou  shalt  go  upon  my  errand,  to  pro¬ 
claim  Christianity  there.”  Leif  replied  that  the  king 
should  decide,  but  gave  it  as  his  belief  that  it  would  be 
difficult  to  carry  this  mission  to  a  successful  issue  to 
Greenland. 

The  king  replied  that  he  knew  of  no  man  who  would 
be  better  fitted  for  this  undertaking,  “  and  in  thy 
hands  the  cause  will  surely  prosper.”  “  This  can  only 
be,”  said  Leif,  “  if  I  enjoy  the  grace  of  your  protection.” 
Leif  put  to  sea  when  his  ship  was  ready  for  the  voyage. 
For  a  long  time  he  was  tossed  about  upon  the  ocean,  and 


25 


26 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


came  upon  lands  of  which  he  had  previously  had  no 
knowledge.  There  were  self-sown  wheat  fields  and  vines 
growing  there.  There  were  also  those  trees  there  which 
are  called  “mausur,”  and  of  all  these  they  took  speci¬ 
mens.  Some  of  the  timbers  were  so  large  that  they  were 
used  in  building.  Leif  found  men  upon  a  wreck,  and  took 
them  home  with  him,  and  procured  quarters  for  them 
all  during  the  winter.  In  this  wise  he  showed  his  noble¬ 
ness  and  goodness,  since  he  introduced  Christianity  into 
the  country,  and  saved  the  men  from  the  wreck;  and  he 
was  called  Leif,  the  Lucky,  ever  after.  Leif  landed  in 
Ericsfirth,  and  then  went  home  to  Brattahlid;  he  was  well 
received  by  every  one.  He  soon  proclaimed  Christianity 
throughout  the  land,  and  the  Catholic  faith,  and  an¬ 
nounced  King  Olaf  Tryggvason’s  messages  to  the  people, 
telling  them  how  much  excellence  and  how  great  glory 
accompanied  this  faith.  .  .  . 

About  this  time  there  began  to  be  much  talk  at  Brat¬ 
tahlid,  to  the  effect-  that  Wineland  the  Good  should  be 
explored,  for,  it  was  said,  that  country  must  be  possessed 
of  many  goodly  qualities.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that 
Karlsefni  and  Snorri  fitted  out  their  ship,  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  going  in  search  of  that  country  in  the  spring. 
Biarni  and  Thorhall  joined  the  expedition  with  their  ship 
and  the  men  who  had  borne  them  company.  .  .  . 

Thorhall  was  stout  and  swarthy,  and  of  giant  stature ; 
he  was  a  man  of  few  words,  though  given  to  abusive  lang¬ 
uage,  when  he  did  speak,  and  he  ever  incited  Eric  to  evil. 
He  was  a  poor  Christian ;  he  htid  a  wide  knowledge  of  the 
unsettled  regions.  He  was  on  the  same  ship  with  Thor- 
vard  and  Thorvald.  They  had  that  ship  which  Thor- 
biorn  had  brought  out.  They  had  in  all  one  hundred  and 
sixty  men,  when  they  sailed  to  the  Western  settlement, 
and  thence  to  Bear  Island.  Thence  they  bore  away  to  the 
southward.  Then  they  saw  land,  and  launched  a  boat, 
and  explored  the  land,  and  found  there  large  flat  stones 
(Hellur),  and  many  of  these  were  twelve  ells  wide;  there 
were  many  Arctic  foxes  there.  They  gave  a  name  to  the 
country,  and  called  it  Helluland  (the  land  of  fiat  stones). 


LEIF,  THE  LUCKY 


27 


Then  they  sailed  with  northerly  winds,  and  land  then  lay 
before  them,  and  npon  it  was  a  great  wood  and  many 
wild  beasts ;  an  island  lay  off  the  land  to  the  southeast, 
and  there  they  found  a  bear,  and  they  called  this  Biarney 
(Bear  Island),  while  the  land  where  the  wood  was  they 
called  Markland  (Forest-land). 

Thence  they  sailed  southward  along  the  land  for  a  long 
time,  and  came  to  a  cape;  the  land  lay  upon  the  star¬ 
board;  there  were  long  strands  and  sandy  banks  there. 
They  rowed  to  the  land  and  found  upon  the  cape  there  the 
keel  of  a  ship,  and  they  called  it  the  Kialarnes  (Keel- 
ness) ;  they  also  called  the  strands  Furdustrandir 
(Wonder-strands),  because  they  were  so  long  to  sail  by. 
Then  the  country  became  indented  with  bays,  and  they 
steered  their  ships  into  a  bay.  .  .  .  Now  when  they  had 
sailed  past  Wonder-strands,  they  put  the  Gaels  ashore, 
and  directed  them  to  run  to  the  southward,  and  investi¬ 
gate  the  nature  of  the  country,  and  return  again  before 
the  end  of  the  third  half-day.  They  were  each  clad  in  a 
garment,  which  they  called  “  kiafal,”  and  which  was  so 
fashioned,  that  it  had  a  hood  at  the  top,  was  open  at  the 
sides,  was  sleeveless  and  was  fastened  .  .  .  with  buttons 
and  loops,  while  elsewhere  they  were  naked.  Karlsefni 
and  his  companions  cast  anchor,  and  lay  there  during 
their  absence;  and  when  they  came  again,  one  of  them 
carried  a  bunch  of  grapes,  and  the  other  an  ear  of  new- 
sown  wheat.  They  went  on  board  the  ship,  whereupon 
Karlsefni  and  his  followers  held  on  their  way,  until  they 
came  to  where  the  coast  was  indented  with  bays. 

They  stood  into  a  bay  with  their  ships.  There  was  an 
island  out  at  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  about  which  there 
were  strong  currents,  wherefore  they  called  it  Straumey 
(Stream  Isle).  There  were  so  many  birds  there,  that  it 
was  scarcely  possible  to  step  between  the  eggs.  They 
sailed  through  the  firth,  and  called  it  Straumfiord 
(Streamfirth),  and  carried  their  cargoes  ashore  from  the 
ships,  and  established  themselves  there.  They  occupied 
themselves  exclusively  with  the  exploration  of  the 
country.  They  remained  there  during  the  winter,  and 


28  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

they  had  taken  no  thought  for  this  during  the  summer. 
The  fishing  began  to  fail,  and  they  began  to  fall  short  of 
food.  .  .  .  The  weather  then  improved,  and  they  could 
now  row  out  to  fish,  and  thenceforward  they  had  no  lack 
of  provisions,  for  they  could  hunt  game  on  the  land, 
gather  eggs  on  the  island,  and  catch  fish  from  the  sea.  .  .  . 

It  is  said  that  Thorhall  wished  to  sail  northward  be¬ 
yond  Wonder-strands,  in  search  of  Wineland,  while  Karl¬ 
sefni  desired  to  proceed  southward,  off  the  coast.  .  .  . 

It  is  now  to  be  told  of  Karlsefni,  that  he  cruised  south¬ 
ward  off  the  coast,  with  Snorri  and  Biarni,  and  their 
people.  They  sailed  for  a  long  time,  until  they  came  at 
last  to  a  river,  which  flowed  down  from  the  land  into  a 
lake,  and  so  into  the  sea.  There  were  great  bars  at  the 
month  of  the  river,  so  that  it  could  only  be  entered  at  the 
height  of  flood-tide.  Karlsefni  and  his  men  sailed  into 
the  month  of  the  river,  and  called  it  there  Hop  (a  small 
land-locked  bay).  They  found  self-sown  wheat-fields  on 
the  land  there,  wherever  there  were  hollows,  and  wher¬ 
ever  there  was  hilly  ground,  there  were  vines.  Every 
brook  there  was  full  of  fish.  They  dug  pits  on  the  shore 
where  the  tide  rose  highest,  and  when  the  tide  fell,  there 
were  halibuts  in  the  pits.  There  were  great  numbers  of 
wild  animals  of  all  kinds  in  the  woods.  They  remained 
there  half  a  month,  and  enjoyed  themselves,  and  kept  no 
watch.  They  had  their  livestock  with  them.  Now  one 
morning  early,  when  they  looked  about  them,  they  saw  a 
great  number  of  skin-canoes,  and  staves  were  brandished 
from  the  boats,  with  a  noise  like  flails,  and  they  were  re¬ 
volved  in  the  same  direction  in  which  the  sun  moves. 
Then  said  Karlsefni,  “  What  may  this  betoken?  ”  Snorri, 
Thorbrand’s  son,  answers  him:  “  It  may  be,  that  this  is 
a  signal  of  peace,  wherefore  let  us  take  a  white  shield  and 
display  it.”  And  thus  they  did.  Thereupon,  the 
strangers  rowed  toward  them,  and  went  upon  the  land, 
marvelling  at  those  whom  they  saw  before  them.  They 
were  swarthy  men,  and  ill  looking,  and  the  hair  of  their 
heads  was  ugly.  They  had  great  eyes,  and  were  bread 
of  cheek.  They  tarried  there  for  a  long  time  looking 


LEIF,  THE  LUCKY  29 

curiously  at  the  people  they  saw  before  them,  and  then 
rowed  away,  and  to  the  southward  around  the  point. 

Karlsefni  and  his  followers  had  built  their  huts  above 
the  lake ;  some  of  their  dwellings  being  near  the  lake,  and 
others  farther  away.  Now  they  remained  there  that 
winter.  No  snow  came  there,  and  all  of  their  live-stock 
lived  by  grazing.  And  when  spring  opened,  they  dis¬ 
covered  early  one  morning,  a  great  number  of  skin- 
canoes,  rowing  from  the  south  past  the  cape,  so  numerous, 
that  it  looked  as  if  coals  had  been  scattered  broadcast 
out  before  the  bay ;  and  on  every  boat  staves  were  waved. 
Thereupon  Karlsefni  and  his  people  displayed  their 
shields,  and  when  they  came  together,  they  began  to 
barter  with  each  other.  Especially  did  the  strangers  wish 
to  buy  red  cloth,  for  which  they  offered  in  exchange 
peltries,  and  quite  gray  skins.  They  also  desired  to  buy 
swords  and  spears,  but  Karlsefni  and  Snorri  forbade  this. 
In  exchange  for  perfect  unsullied  skins,  the  Skrellings 
would  take  red  stuff,  a  span  in  length,  which  they  would 
bind  around  their  heads.  So  their  trade  went  on  for  a 
time,  until  Karlsefni  and  his  people  began  to  grow  short 
of  cloth,  when  they  divided  it  into  such  narrow  pieces, 
that  it  was  not  more  than  a  finger’s  breadth  wide,  but  the 
Skrellings  still  continued  to  give  just  as  much  for  this  as 
before,  or  more. 

It  so  happened,  that  a  bull,  which  belonged  to  Karlsefni 
and  his  people,  ran  out  from  the  woods,  bellowing  loudly. 
This  so  terrified  the  Skrellings,  that  they  sped  out  to  their 
canoes,  and  then  rowed  away  to  the  southward  along  the 
coast.  For  three  entire  weeks  nothing  more  was  seen  of 
them.  At  the  end  of  this  time,  however,  a  great  multitude 
of  Skrelling  boats  was  discovered  approaching  from  the 
south,  as  if  a  stream  were  pouring  down,  and  all  of  their 
staves  were  waved  in  the  direction  contrary  to  the  course 
of  the  sun,  and  the  Skrellings  were  all  uttering  loud 
cries.  Thereupon  Karlsefni  and  his  men  took  red  shields 
and  displayed  them.  The  Skrellings  sprang  from  their 
boats,  and  they  met  them,  and  fought  together.  There 
was  a  fierce  shower  of  missiles,  for  the  Skrellings  had 


30 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


war-slings.  Karlsefni  and  Snorri  observed  that  the 
Skrellings  raised  upon  a  pole  a  great  ball-shaped  body, 
almost  the  size  of  a  sheep’s  belly,  and  nearly  black  in  color, 
and  this  they  hurled  from  the  pole  up  on  the  land  above 
Karlsefni ’s  followers,  and  it  made  a  frightful  noise, 
where  it  fell.  Whereupon  a  great  fear  seized  upon  Karl¬ 
sefni  and  all  his  men,  so  that  they  could  think  of  naught 
but  flight,  and  of  making  their  escape  up  along  the  river 
bank,  for  it  seemed  to  them,  that  the  troop  of  the 
Skrellings  was  rushing  toward  them  from  every  side,  and 
they  did  not  pause  until  they  came  to  certain  jutting 
crags,  where  they  offered  a  stout  resistance.  Freydis 
came  out,  and  seeing  that  Karlsefni  and  his  men  were 
fleeing,  she  cried :  ‘ 4  Why  do  you  flee  from  these  wretches, 
such  worthy  men  as  ye,  when  meseems,  ye  might  slaughter 
them  like  cattle.  Had  I  but  a  weapon,  methinks,  I  would 
fight  better  than  any  of  you !  ’  ’  They  gave  no  heed  to  her 
words.  Freydis  sought  to  join  them,  but  lagged  behind, 
for  she  was  not  hale;  she  followed  them,  however,  into 
the  forest,  while  the  Skrellings  pursued  her;  she  found  a 
dead  man  in  front  of  her;  this  was  Thorband,  Snorri’s 
son,  his  skull  cleft  by  a  flat  stone;  his  naked  sword  lay 
beside  him;  she  took  it  up  and  prepared  to  defend  her¬ 
self  with  it.  The  Skrellings  then  approached  her,  where¬ 
upon,  she  .  .  .  slapped  her  breast  with  the  naked  sword. 
At  this  the  Skrellings  were  terrified  and  ran  down  to  their 
boats,  and  rowed  away.  Karlsefni  and  his  companions, 
however,  joined  her  and  praised  her  valor.  Two  of 
Karlsefni ’s  men  had  fallen,  and  a  great  number  of  Skrell¬ 
ings.  Karlsefni ’s  party  had  been  overpowered  by  dint 
of  superior  numbers.  They  now  returned  to  their  dwell¬ 
ings  and  bound  up  their  wounds,  and  weighed  carefully 
what  throng  of  men  that  could  have  been,  which  had 
seemed  to  descend  upon  them  from  the  land;  it  now 
seemed  to  them  that  there  could  have  been  but  the  one 
party,  that  which  came  from  the  boats,  and  that  the  other 
troop  must  have  been  an  ocular  delusion.  The  Skrellings, 
moreover,  found  a  dead  man,  and  an  axe  lay  beside  him. 
One  of  their  number  picked  up  the  axe  and  struck  a 


31 


LEIF,  THE  LUCKY 

tree  with  it,  and  one  after  another  (they  tested  it),  and 
it  seemed  to  them  to  be  a  treasure,  and  to  cnt  well;  then 
one  of  their  number  seized  it,  and  hewed  at  a  stone  with 
it,  so  that  the  axe  broke,  whereat  they  concluded  that  it 
could  be  of  no  use,  since  it  would  not  withstand  stone,  and 
they  cast  it  away. 

It  now  seemed  clear  to  Karlsefni  and  his  people,  that 
although  the  country  thereabouts  was  attractive,  their  life 
would  be  one  of  constant  dread  and  turmoil  by  reason  of 
the  (hostility  of  the)  inhabitants  of  the  country,  so  they 
forthwith  prepared  to  leave,  and  determined  to  return  to 
their  own  country.  They  sailed  to  the  northward  off  the 
coast,  and  found  five  Skrellings  clad  in  sldn-doublets, 
lying  asleep  near  the  sea.  There  were  vessels  beside 
them,  containing  animal  marrow  mixed  with  b]ood.  Karl¬ 
sefni  and  his  company  concluded  that  they  must  have 
been  banished  from  their  own  land.  They  put  them  to 
death.  They  afterward  found  a  cape,  upon  which  there 
was  a  great  number  of  animals  .  .  .  which  lay  there  at 
night.  They  now  arrive  again  at  Streamfirth,  where 
they  found  great  abundance  of  all  those  things  of  which 
they  stood  in  need.  Some  men  say  that  Biarni  and 
Freydis  remained  behind  here  with  a  hundred  men,  and 
went  no  further  ;  while  Karlsefni  and  Snorri  proceeded 
to  the  southward  with  forty  men,  tarrying  at  Hop  barely 
two  months,  and  returning  again  the  same  summer. 
Karlsefni  then  set  out  with  one  ship  in  search  of  Tlior- 
hall,  the  Huntsman,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  company 
remained  behind.  They  sailed  to  the  northward  around 
Keelness,  and  then  bore  to  the  westward,  having  land  to 
the  larboard.  The  country  there  was  a  wooded  wilder¬ 
ness  as  far  as  they  could  see,  with  scarcely  an  open  space ; 
and  when  they  had  journeyed  a  considerable  distance,  a 
river  flowed  down  from  the  east  toward  the  west. 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES  IN 

AMERICA. 


BY 

Brantz  Mayer. 

Brantz  Mayer  was  born  in  Baltimore  in  1S09  and  died  in  1879.  He 
was  Secretary  of  the  U.  S.  Legation  in  Mexico  1841-2,  and  later  a 
colonel  in  the  Federal  Army  in  the  Civil  War.  He  published  several 
works  on  Mexico  and  a  novel  entitled  “  Captain  Carnot.” 

COLUMBUS,  after  coasting  the  shores  of  Cuba;  for 
a  great  distance,  had  always  believed  that  it  con¬ 
stituted  a  portion  of  the  continent,  but  it  was 
soon  discovered  that  the  illustrious  admiral  had  been  in 
error,  and  that  Cuba,  extensive  as  it  appeared  to  be, 
was,  in  fact,  only  an  island. 

In  February,  1517,  a  Spanish  hidalgo ,  Hernandez  de 
Cordova,  set  sail,  with  three  vessels,  toward  the  adjacent 
Bahamas  in  search  of  slaves.  He  was  driven  by  a  suc¬ 
cession  of  severe  storms  on  coasts  which  had  hitherto 
been  unknown  to  the  Spanish  adventurers,  and  finally 
landed  on  that  part  of  the  continent  which  forms  the 
north-eastern  end  of  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  and  is 
known  as  Cape  Catoche.  Here  he  first  discovered  the  evi¬ 
dence  of  a  more  liberal  civilization  than  had  been  hitherto 
known  among  his  adventurous  countrymen  in  the  New 
World.  Large  and  solid  buildings,  formed  of  stone — 
cultivated  fields  —  delicate  fabrics  of  cotton  and  precious 
metals  —  indicated  the  presence  of  a  race  that  had  long 
emerged  from  the  semi-barbarism  of  the  Indian  Isles. 
The  bold  but  accidental  explorer  continued  his  voyage 
along  the  coast  of  the  peninsula  until  he  reached  the  site 
of  Campeche ;  and  then,  after  an  absence  of  seven  months 
and  severe  losses  among  his  men,  returned  to  Cuba,  with 
but  half  the  number  of  his  reckless  companions.  He 

From  “  Mexico,  Aztec,  Spanish,  and  Republican.”  By  Brantz  Mayer. 

32 


a 


m 


m 


m 


WAITING  THE  RETURN  GF  THE  TRAVELER 

AFTER  THE  PAINTING  BY  EDITH  HUME 
‘‘Joy!  the  lost  one  is  restor’d! 

Sunshine  comes  to  hearth  and  board. 

countries  old, 
and  red  gold, 
archer  bands, 
desert  sands, 


From  the  far-off 
Of  the  diamond 
From  the  dusty 
Roamers  of  the 
He  hath  reached 


his  home 


w 


again.' 

-Mrs.  Hemans. 


S5& 


53k 


_  /V  i  i  A  «*■•*+* 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


35 


brought  back  with  him,  however,  numerous  evidences  of 
the  wealth  and  progress  of  the  people  he  had  fortuitously 
discovered  on  the  American  main;  but  he  soon  died,  and 
left  to  others  the  task  of  completing  the  enterprise  he  had 
so  auspiciously  begun.  The  fruits  of  his  discoveries  re¬ 
mained  to  be  gathered  by  Velasquez,  who  at  once  equip¬ 
ped  four  vessels  and  entrusted  them  to  the  command  of 
his  nephew,  Juan  de. Grijalva,  and  on  the  1st  of  May,  1518, 
this  new  commander  left  the  port  of  St.  Jago  de  Cuba. 
The  first  land  he  touched  on  his  voyage  of  discovery,  was 
the  island  of  Cozumel,  whence  he  passed  to  the  continent, 
glancing  at  the  spots  that  had  been  previously  visited  by 
Cordova.  So  struck  was  he  by  the  architecture,  the  im¬ 
proved  agriculture,  the  civilized  tastes,  the  friendly  char¬ 
acter  and  demeanor  of  the  inhabitants,  and,  especially,  by 
the  sight  of  “  large  stone  crosses,  evidently  objects  of 
worship,”  that,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  moment,  he  gave 
to  the  land  the  name  of  Nueva  Espana  —  or  New  Spain 

—  a  title  which  has  since  been  extended  from  the  penin¬ 
sula  of  Yucatan  to  even  more  than  the  entire  empire  of 
Montezuma  and  the  Aztecs. 

Grijalva  did  not  content  himself  with  a  mere  casual 
visit  to  the  continent,  but  pursued  his  course  along  the 
coast,  stopping  at  the  Rio  de  Tabasco.  Whilst  at  Rio  de 
Vanderas,  he  enjoyed  the  first  intercourse  that  ever  took 
place  between  the  Spaniards  and  Mexicans.  The  Cacique 
of  the  Province  sought  from  the  strangers  a  full  account 
of  their  distant  country  and  the  motives  of  their  visit,  in 
order  that  he  might  convey  the  intelligence  to  his  Aztec 
master.  Presents  were  interchanged,  and  Grijalva  re¬ 
ceived,  in  return  for  his  toys  and  tinsel,  a  mass  of  jewels, 
together  with  ornaments  and  vessels  of  gold,  which  satis¬ 
fied  the  adventurers  that  they  had  reached  a  country 
whose  resources  would  repay  them  for  the  toil  of  further 
exploration.  Accordingly,  he  despatched  to  Cuba  with 
the  joyous  news,  Pedro  de  Alvarado,  one  of  his  captains 

—  a  man  who  was  destined  to  play  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  future  conquest  —  whilst  he,  with  the  remainder  of 
his  companies,  continued  his  coasting  voyage  to  San  Juan 

Vol.  IV --3 


36 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


de  Ulna,  the  Island  of  Sacrificios,  and  the  northern  shores, 
until  he  reached  the  Province  of  Panuco;  whence,  after 
an  absence  of  six  months,  he  set  sail  for  Cuba,  having 
been  the  first  Spanish  adventurer  who  trod  the  soil  of 
Mexico. 

But  his  return  was  not  hailed  even  with  gratitude.  The 
florid  reports  of  Pedro  de  Alvarado  had  already  inflamed 
the  ambition  and  avarice  of  Velasquez,  who,  impatient  of 
the  prolonged  absence  of  Grijalva,  had  despatched  a  ves¬ 
sel  under  the  command  of  Olid  in  search  of  his  tardy  offi¬ 
cer.  Nor  was  he  content  with  this  jealous  exhibition  of 
his  temper ;  for,  anxious  to  secure  to  himself  all  the  glory 
and  treasure  to  be  derived  from  the  boundless  resources 
of  a  continent,  he  solicited  authority  from  the  Spanish 
crown  to  prosecute  the  adventures  that  had  been  so 
auspiciously  begun;  and,  in  the  meanwhile  after  consider¬ 
able  deliberation,  resolved  to  fit  out  another  armament  on 
a  scale,  in  some  degree,  commensurate  with  the  military 
subjugation  of  the  country,  should  he  find  himself  op¬ 
posed  by  its  sovereign  and  people.  After  considerable 
doubt,  difficulty  and  delay,  he  resolved  to  entrust  this  ex¬ 
pedition  to  the  command  of  Herxando  Cortez;  “  the  last 
man,”  says  Prescott,  “to  whom  Velasquez  —  could  he 
have  foreseen  the  results — would  have  confided  the 
enterprise.” 

As  soon  as  Cortez  reached  Hispaniola,  lie  visited  the 
Governor,  whom  he  had  formerly  known  at  home. 
Ovando  was  absent,  but  his  secretary  received  the  emi¬ 
grant  kindly,  and  assured  him  “  a  liberal  grant  of  land.” 
“  I  come  for  gold/’  replied  Cortez,  sneeringly,  “  and  not 
to  toil  like  a  peasant!  ”  Ovando,  however,  was  more  for¬ 
tunate  than  the  secretary,  in  prevailing  upon  the  future 
conqueror  to  forego  the  lottery  of  adventure,  for  no 
sooner  had  lie  returned  to  his  post,  than  Cortez  was  per¬ 
suaded  to  accept  a  grant  of  land,  a  repartimiento  of 
Indians,  and  the  office  of  notary  in  the  village  of  Agua. 
Here  lie  seems  to  have  dwelt  until  1511,  varying  the 
routine  of  notarial  and  agricultural  pursuits  by  some¬ 
times  taking  part  in  the  military  expeditions  under  Diego 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


37 


Velasquez  for  the  suppression  of  Indian  insurrections  in 
the  interior.  This  was  the  school  in  which  he  learned  his 
tactics,  and  here  did  he  study  the  native  character  until 
he  joined  Velasquez  for  the  conquest  of  Cuba. 

As  soon  as  this  famous  Island  was  reduced  to  Spanish 
authority,  Cortez  became  high  in  favor  with  Velasquez, 
who  had  received  the  commission  of  Governor.  But  love, 
intrigues,  jealousy  and  ambition,  quickly  began  to  checker 
the  wayward  life  of  our  hero,  and  estranged  him  from 
Velasquez,  for  the  new  Governor  found  it  difficult  to 
satisfy  the  cravings  of  those  rapacious  adventurers  who 
flocked  in  crowds  to  the  New  World,  and,  in  all  prob¬ 
ability,  clustered  around  Cortez  as  the  nucleus  of  discon¬ 
tent.  It  was  soon  resolved  by  these  men  to  submit  their 
complaints  against  Velasquez  to  the  higher  authorities  in 
Hispaniola,  and  the  daring  Cortez  was  fixed  on  as  the 
bearer  of  the  message  in  an  open  boat,  across  the  eighteen 
intervening  leagues.  But  the  conspiracy  was  detected  — 
the  rash  ambassador  confined  in  chains  —  and  only 
saved  from  hanging  by  the  interposition  of  powerful 
friends. 

Cortez  speedily  contrived  to  relieve  himself  of  the  fet¬ 
ters  with  which  he  was  bound,  and,  forcing  a  window, 
escaped  from  his  prison  to  the  sanctuary  of  a  neighboring 
church.  A  few  days  after,  however,  he  was  seized  whilst 
standing  carelessly  in  front  of  the  sacred  edifice,  and 
conveyed  on  board  a  vessel  bound  for  Hispaniola,  where 
he  was  to  be  tried.  But  his  intrepidity  and  skill  did  not 
forsake  him  even  in  this  strait.  Ascending  cautiously 
from  the  vessel’s  hold  to  the  deck,  he  dropped  into  a  boat 
and  pulled  near  ashore,  when  dreading  to  risk  the  frail 
bark  in  the  breakers,  he  abandoned  his  skiff  —  plunged 
boldly  into  the  surf  —  and  landing  on  the  sands,  sought 
again  the  sanctuary,  whence  he  had  been  rudely  snatched 
by  the  myrmidons  of  the  Governor.  .  .  . 

The  future  conqueror  devoted  himself  henceforth  to  his 
duties  with  remarkable  assiduity.  Agriculture —  the  in¬ 
troduction  of  cattle  of  the  best  breeds  —  and  the  revenues 
of  a  share  of  the  mines  which  he  wrought  —  soon  began 


38 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


to  enrich  the  restless  adventurer  who  had  settled  down 
for  a  while  into  the  quiet  life  of  a  married  man.  His 
beautiful  wife  fulfilled  her  share  of  the  cares  of  life  with 
remarkable  fidelity,  and  seems  to  have  contented  the  heart 
even  of  her  liege  lord  who  declared  himself  as  happy  with 
his  bride  as  if  she  had  been  the  daughter  of  a  duchess. 

At  this  juncture  Alvarado  returned  with  the  account  of 
the  discoveries,  the  wealth,  and  the  golden  prospects  of 
continental  adventure  which  we  have  already  narrated. 
Cortez  and  Velasquez  were  alike  fired  by  the  alluring 
story.  The  old  flame  of  enterprise  was  rekindled  in  the 
breast  of  the  wild  boy  of  Medellin,  and  when  the  Governor 
looked  around  for  one  who  could  command  the  projected 
expedition,  lie  found  none,  among  the  hosts  who  pressed 
for  service,  better  fitted  for  the  enterprise  by  personal 
qualities  and  fortune,  than  Hernando  Cortez,  whom  he 
named  Captain-General  of  his  Armada.  .  .  . 

Six  ships  and  three  hundred  followers  were  soon  pre¬ 
pared  for  the  enterprise  under  Cortez,  and  the  Governor 
proceeded  to  give  instructions  to  the  leader,  all  of  which 
are  couched  in  language  of  unquestionable  liberality. 

The  captain  of  the  Armada  was  first  to  seek  the  missing 
Grijalva,  after  which  the  two  commanders  were  to  unite 
in  their  quest  of  gold  and  adventure.  Six  Christians, 
supposed  to  be  lingering  in  captivity  in  Yucatan,  were  to 
be  sought  and  released.  Barter  and  traffic,  generally, 
with  the  natives  were  to  be  encouraged  and  carried  on, 
so  as  to  avoid  all  offence  against  humanity  or  kindness. 
The  Indians  were  to  be  christianized ;  for  the  conversion 
of  heathens  was  one  of  the  dearest  objects  of  the  Spanish 
king.  The  Aborigines,  in  turn,  were  to  manifest  their 
good  will  by  ample  gifts  of  jewels  and  treasure'.  The 
coasts  and  adjacent  streams  were  to  be  surveyed  —  and 
the  productions  of  the  country,  its  races,  civilization,  and 
institutions,  were  to  be  noted  with  minute  accuracy,  so 
that  a  faithful  report  might  be  returned  to  the  crown, 
to  whose  honor  and  the  service  of  God,  it  was  hoped  the 
enterprise  would  certainly  redound. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  in  the  port  of  St.  Jago, 


SOME  EAELY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


39 


when  jealous  fears  began  to  interrnpt  the  confidence  be¬ 
tween  Velasquez  and  Cortez.  The  counsel  of  friends  who 
were  companions  of  the  Governor,  and  his  own  notice  of 
that  personage’s  altered  conduct,  soon  put  the  new 
Captain  General  of  the  Armada  on  his  guard.  Neither 
his  equipment  nor  his  crew  was  yet  complete ;  neverthe¬ 
less,  he  supplied  his  fleet  with  all  the  provisions  he  could 
hastily  obtain  at  midnight  ;  and,  paying  the  provider  with 
a  massive  chain  which  he  had  worn  about  his  neck  —  the 
last  available  remnant,  perhaps,  of  his  fortune  —  he 
hastened  with  his  officers  on  board  the  vessels. 

On  the  18th  of  November,  1518,  he  made  sail  for  the 
port  of  Macaca,  about  fifteen  leagues  distant,  and  thence 
he  proceeded  to  Trinidad,  on  the  southern  coast  of  Cuba. 
Here  he  obtained  stores  from  the  royal  farms,  whilst 
he  recruited  his  forces  from  all  classes,  but  especially 
from  the  returned  troops  and  sailors  of  Grijalva’s  expe¬ 
dition.  Pedro  de  Alvarado  and  his  brothers ;  Cristoval  de 
Olid,  Alonzo  de  Avila,  Juan  Velasquez  de  Leon,  Hernan¬ 
dez  de  Puerto  Carrero,  and  Gonzalo  de  Sandoval,  united 
their  fortunes  to  his,  and  thus  identified  themselves  for¬ 
ever  with  the  conquest  of  Mexico.  He  added  considerably 
to  his  stock  by  the  seizure  of  several  vessels  and  cargoes ; 
and  prudently  got  rid  of  Diego  de  Ordaz,  whom  he  re¬ 
garded  as  a  spy  of  the  estranged  Velasquez. 

At  Trinidad,  Cortez  was  overtaken  by  orders  for  de¬ 
tention  from  his  former  friend  and  patron.  These  com¬ 
mands,  however,  were  not  enforced  by  the  cautious  official 
who  received  them;  and  Cortez,  forthwith,  despatched 
Alvarado,  by  land,  to  Havana,  whilst  he  prepared  to  fol¬ 
low  with  his  fleet  around  the  coast  and  western  part  of 
the  island.  At  Havana  he  again  added  to  his  forces  — 
prepared  arms  and  quilted  armor  as  a  defence  against 
the  Indian  arrows  —  and  distributed  his  men  into  eleven 
companies  under  the  command  of  experienced  officers. 
But,  before  all  his  arrangements  were  completed,  the 
commander  of  the  place,  Don  Pedro  Barba,  was  ordered, 
by  express  from  Velasquez,  to  arrest  Cortez,  whilst  the 
Captain  General  of  the  Armada  himself  received  a  hypo- 


40 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


critical  letter  from  the  same  personage,  “  requesting  him 
to  delay  his  voyage  till  the  governor  could  communicate 
with  him  in  person !  ’  ’  Barba,  however,  knew  that  the  at¬ 
tempt  to  seize  the  leader  of  such  an  enterprise  and  of 
such  a  band,  would  be  vain;  whilst  Cortez,  in  reply  to 
Velasquez,  “  implored  his  Excellency  to  rely  on  his 
boundless  devotion  to  the  interests  of  his  Governor,  but 
assured  him,  nevertheless,  that  he  and  his  fleet,  by  divine 
permission,  would  sail  on  the  following  day !  ’  * 

Accordingly,  on  the  18th  of  February,  1519,  the  little 
squadron  weighed  anchor,  with  one  hundred  and  ten 
mariners,  sixteen  horses,  five  hundred  and  fifty-three  sol¬ 
diers,  including  thirty-two  crossbowmen  and  thirteen 
arquebusiers,  besides  two  hundred  Indians  of  the  island 
and  a  few  native  women,  for  menial  offices.  The  ordnance 
consisted  of  ten  heavy  guns,  four  lighter  pieces  of  fal¬ 
conets,  together  with  a  good  supply  of  ammunition. 

With  this  insignificant  command  and  paltry  equipment, 
Hernando  Cortez,  at  the  age  of  thirty-three,  set  sail  for 
the  conquest  of  Mexico.  He  invoked  on  his  enterprise  the 
blessing  of  liis  patron,  Saint  Peter;  he  addressed  his  fol¬ 
lowers  in  the  language  of  encouragement  and  resolution; 
he  unfurled  a  velvet  banner  on  which  was  emblazoned 
the  figure  of  a  crimson  cross  amid  flames  of  blue  and 
white,  and  he  pointed  to  the  motto  which  was  to  be  the 
presage  of  victory:  “  Friends,  let  us  follow  the  Cross: 
and  under  this  sign,  if  we  have  faith,  we  shall  conquer !  ’  * 
Soon  after  the  adventurers  departed  from  the  coast  of 
Cuba,  the  weather,  which  had  been  hitherto  fine,  suddenly 
changed,  and  one  of  those  violent  hurricanes  which 
ravage  the  Indian  Isles  during  the  warm  season,  scat¬ 
tered  and  dismantled  the  small  squadron,  sweeping  it  far 
to  the  south  of  its  original  destination.  Cortez  was  the 
last  to  reach  the  Island  of  Cozumel,  having  been  forced 
to  linger  in  order  to  watch  for  the  safety  of  one  of  his 
battered  craft.  But,  immediately  on  landing,  he  was 
pained  to  learn  that  the  impetuous  Pedro  de  Alvarado 
had  rashly  entered  the  temples,  despoiled  them  of  their 
ornaments;  and  terrified  the  natives  into  promiscuous 


SOME  EAELY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


41 


flight.  He  immediately  devoted  himself  to  the  task  of 
obliterating  this  stain  on  Spanish  humanity,  by  kindly 
releasing  two  of  the  captives  taken  by  Alvarado.  Through 
an  interpreter  he  satisfied  them  of  the  pacific  purpose  of 
his  voyage,  and  despatched  them  to  their  homes  with 
valuable  gifts.  This  humane  policy  appears  to  have  suc¬ 
ceeded  with  the  natives,  who  speedily  returned  from  the 
interior,  and  commenced  a  brisk  traffic  of  gold  for 
trinkets.  .  .  . 

After  the  vessels  were  refitted,  Cortez  coasted  the 
shores  of  Yucatan  until  he  reached  the  Rio  de  Tabasco  or 
Grijalva,  where  he  encountered  the  first  serious  opposi¬ 
tion  to  the  Spanish  arms.  He  had  a  severe  conflict,  in  the 
vicinity  of  his  landing,  with  a  large  force  of  the  natives ; 
but  the  valor  of  his  men,  the  terror  inspired  by  fire  arms, 
and  the  singular  spectacle  presented  to  the  astonished 
Indians  by  the  extraordinary  appearance  of  cavalry,  soon 
turned  the  tide  of  victory  in  his  favor.  The  subdued 
tribes  appeased  his  anger  by  valuable  gifts,  and  forthwith 
established  friendly  relations  with  their  dreaded  con¬ 
queror.  Among  the  presents  offered  upon  this  occasion 
by  the  vanquished,  were  twenty  female  slaves ;  and  after 
one  of  the  holy  fathers  had  attempted,  as  usual,  to  im¬ 
press  the  truths  of  Christianity  upon  the  natives,  and  had 
closed  the  ceremonies  of  the  day  by  a  pompous  pro¬ 
cession,  with  all  the  impressive  ceremonial  of  the  Roman 
church,  the  fleet  again  sailed  toward  the  empire  Cortez 
was  destined  to  penetrate  and  subdue. 

In  Passion  week,  of  the  year  1519,  the  squadron 
dropped  anchor  under  the  lee  of  the  Island  or  reef  of  St. 
Juan  de  TJlua.  The  natives  immediately  boarded  the  ves¬ 
sel  of  the  Captain  G  eneral ;  but  their  language  was  alto¬ 
gether  different  from  that  of  the  Mayan  dialects  spoken 
in  Yucatan  and  its  immediate  dependencies.  In  this 
emergency  Cortez  learned  that,  among  the  twenty  female 
slaves  who  had  been  recently  presented  him,  there  was 
one  who  knew  the  Mexican  language,  and,  in  fact,  that 
she  was  an  Aztec  by  birth.  This  was  the  celebrated 
Marina  or  Mariana,  who  accompanied  the  conqueror 


42 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


throughout  his  subsequent  adventures,  and  was  so  useful 
as  a  sagacious  friend  and  discreet  interpreter.  Ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  languages  of  her  native  land  and  of 
the  Yucatecos,  she  found  it  easy  to  translate  the  idiom  of 
the  Aztecs  into  the  Mayan  dialect  which  Aguilar,  the 
Spaniard,  had  learned  during  his  captivity.  Through  this 
medium,  Cortez  was  apprised  that  these  Mexicans  or 
Aztecs  were  the  subjects  of  a  powerful  sovereign  who 
ruled  an  empire  bounded  by  two  seas,  and  that  his  name 
was  Montezuma. 

On  the  21st  of  April  the  Captain  General  landed  on  the 

sandv  and  desolate  beach  whereon  is  now  built  the  modern 
«/ 

city  of  Vera  Cruz.  Within  a  few  days  the  native  Gover¬ 
nor  of  the  province  arrived  to  greet  him,  and  expressed 
great  anxiety  to  learn  whence  the  “  fair  and  bearded 
strangers  ”  had  come?  Cortez  told  him  that  he  was  the 
“  subject  of  a  mighty  monarch  beyond  the  sea  who  ruled 
over  an  immense  empire  and  had  kings  and  princes  for 
his  vassals;  that,  acquainted  with  the  greatness  of  the 
Mexican  emperor,  his  master  desired  to  enter  into  com¬ 
munication  with  so  great  a  personage,  and  had  sent  him, 
as  an  envoy,  to  wait  on  Montezuma  with  a  present  in  token 
of  his  good  will,  and  a  friendly  message  which  he  must 
deliver  in  person.’’  The  Indian  Governor  expressed  sur¬ 
prise  that  there  was  another  king  as  great  as  his  master, 
yet  assured  Cortez  that  as  soon  as  he  learned  Monte¬ 
zuma’s  determination,  he  would  again  converse  with 
him  on  the  subject.  Teuhtle  then  presented  the  Captain 
General  ten  loads  of  fine  cottons;  mantles  of  curious 
feather  work,  beautifully  dyed;  and  baskets  filled  with 
golden  ornaments.  Cortez,  in  turn,  produced  the  gifts  for 
the  emperor,  which  were  comparatively  insignificant; 
but,  when  the  Aztec  Governor  desired  to  receive  the  glit¬ 
tering  helmet  of  one  of  the  men,  it  was  readily  given  as  an 
offering  to  the  emperor,  with  the  significant  request  that 
it  might  be  returned  filled  with  gold,  which  Cortez  told 
him  was  “  a  specific  remedy  for  a  disease  of  the  heart 
with  which  his  countrymen,  the  Spaniards,  were  sorely 
afflicted !  ’  ’ 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


43 


During  this  interview  between  the  functionaries  it  was 
noticed  by  the  adventurers  that  men  were  eagerly  em¬ 
ployed  among  the  Indians  in  sketching  every  thing  they 
beheld  in  the  ranks  of  the  strangers  —  for,  by  this  pic¬ 
ture-writing,  the  Mexican  monarch  was  to  be  apprised  in 
accurate  detail  of  the  men,  horses,  ships,  armor,  force, 
and  weapons  of  this  motley  band  of  invaders. 

These  pictorial  missives  were  swiftly  borne  by  the 
Mexican  couriers  to  the  Aztec  capital  among  the  moun¬ 
tains,  and,  together  with  the  oral  account  of  the  landing 
of  Cortez  and  his  demand  for  an  interview,  were  laid 
before  the  Imperial  Court.  .  .  . 

When  the  news  of  Cortez’s  arrival  became  the  subject 
of  discussion  in  Mexico,  some  were  for  open  or  wily  re¬ 
sistance.  Others  were  oppressed  with  superstitious 
fears.  But  Montezuma,  adopting  a  medium  but  fatal 
course,  resolved,  without  delay,  to  send  an  embassy  with 
such  gifts  as  he  imagined  would  impress  the  strangers 
with  the  idea  of  his  magnificence  and  power,  whilst,  at 
the  same  time,  he  courteously  commanded  the  adventurers 
to  refrain  from  approaching  his  capital. 

Meanwhile  the  Spaniards  restlessly  endured  the  scorch¬ 
ing  heat  and  manifold  annoyances  of  the  coast,  and  were 
amusing  themselves  by  a  paltry  traffic  with  the  Indians, 
whose  offerings  were  generally  of  but  trifling  value. 
After  the  expiration  of  a  week,  however,  the  returned 
couriers  and  the  embassy  approached  the  camp.  The 
time  is  seemingly  short  when  we  consider  the  difficulty  of 
transportation  through  a  mountain  country,  and  recollect 
that  the  Mexicans,  who  were  without  horses,  had  been 
obliged  to  traverse  the  distance  on  foot.  But  it  is  related 
on  ample  authority  —  so  perfectly  were  the  posts  ar¬ 
ranged  among  these  semi-civilized  people  —  that  tidings 
were  borne  in  the  short  period  of  twenty-four  hours  from 
the  city  to  the  sea,  and  consequently,  that  three  or  four 
days  were  ample  for  the  journey  of  the  envoys  of  Monte¬ 
zuma,  upon  a  matter  of  so  much  national  importance. 

The  two  Aztec  nobles,  accompanied  by  the  Governor  of 
the  province,  Teuhtle,  did  not  approach  with  empty  hands 


44 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


tlie  men  whom  they  hoped  to  bribe  if  they  could  not  in¬ 
timidate.  Gold  and  native  fabrics  of  the  most  delicate 
character;  shields,  helmets,  cuirasses,  collars,  bracelets, 
sandals,  fans,  pearls,  precious  stones;  loads  of  cotton 
cloth,  extraordinary  manufactures  of  feathers,  circular 
plates  of  gold  and  silver  as  large  as  carriage  wheels,  and 
the  Spanish  helmet  filled  with  golden  grains;  were  all 
spread  out,  as  a  free  gift  from  the  Emperor  to  the 
Spaniards ! 

With  these  magnificent  presents,  Montezuma  replied  to 
the  request  of  Cortez,  that  it  would  give  him  pleasure  to 
communicate  with  so  mighty  a  monarch  as  the  king  of 
Spain,  whom  he  respected  highly,  but  that  he  could  not 
gratify  himself  by  according  the  foreign  envoy  a  personal 
interview,  inasmuch  as  the  distance  to  his  capital  was 
great,  and  the  toilsome  journey  among  the  mountains  was 
beset  with  dangers  from  formidable  enemies.  He  could 
do  no  more,  therefore,  than  bid  the  strangers  farewell, 
and  request  them  to  return  to  their  homes  over  the  sea 
with  these  proofs  of  his  perfect  friendship. 

It  may  well  be  supposed  that  this  naive  system  of 
diplomacy  could  have  but  little  effect  on  men  who  were 
bent  on  improving  their  fortunes,  and  whose  rapacity  was 
only  stimulated  by  the  evidences  of  unbounded  wealth 
which  the  simple-minded  king  had  so  lavishly  bestowed 
on  them.  Montezuma  was  the  dupe  of  his  own  credulity, 
and  only  inflamed,  by  the  very  means  he  imagined  would 
assuage  the  avarice  or  ambition  of  his  Spanish  visitors. 
Nor  was  Cortez  less  resolved  than  his  companions.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  he  made  another  pacific  effort,  by  means  of 
additional  presents  and  a  gentle  message,  to  change  the 
resolution  of  the  Indian  emperor.  Still  the  Aztec  sover¬ 
eign  was  obstinate  in  his  refusal  of  a  personal  interview, 
although  he  sent  fresh  gifts  by  the  persons  who  bore  to 
the  Spaniards  his  polite  but  firm  and  peremptory  denial. 

Cortez  could  hardly  conceal  his  disappointment  at  this, 
second  rebuff;  but,  as  the  vesper  bell  tolled,  whilst  the 
ambassadors  were  in  his  presence,  he  threw  himself  on 
his  knees  with  his  soldiers,  and,  after  a  prayer,  Father 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


45 


Olmedo  expounded  to  the  Aztec  chiefs,  by  his  interpre¬ 
ters,  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  putting  into  their 
hands  an  image  of  the  Virgin  and  Saviour,  he  exhorted 
them  to  abandon  their  hideous  idolatry,  and  to  place  these 
milder  emblems  of  faith  and  hope  on  the  altars  of  their 
bJoody  gods.  That  very  night  the  Indians  abandoned  the 
Spanish  camp  and  the  neighborhood,  leaving  the  adven¬ 
turers  without  the  copious  supplies  of  food  that  hitherto 
had  been  bountifully  furnished.  Cortez,  nevertheless, 
was  undismayed  by  these  menacing  symptoms,  and  ex¬ 
claimed  to  his  hardy  followers  :  “  It  shall  yet  go  hard,  but 
we  will  one  day  pay  this  powerful  prince  a  visit  in  his 
gorgeous  capital!  ” 

Cortez  was  not  long  idle  after  the  withdrawal  of  the 
Aztec  emissaries  and  the  surly  departure  of  the  Indians. 
He  forthwith  proceeded  to  establish  a  military  and  civil 
colony,  of  which  he  became  Capain  General  and  Chief 
Justice;  he  founded  the  Villa  Rica  de  la  Vera  Cruz  in 
order  to  secure  a  base  on  the  coast  for  future  military 
operation,  by  means  of  which  he  might  be  independent  of 
Velasquez;  and  he  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Totonacos 
of  Cempoalla,  whose  loyalty  —  though  they  were  subjects 
of  Montezuma  —  was  alienated  from  him  by  his  merciless 
exactions.  The  most  daring  act  of  this  period  was  the 
destruction  of  the  squadron  which  had  wafted  him  to 
Mexico.  It  was  a  deed  of  wise  policy,  which  deliberately 
cut  off  all  hope  of  retreat  —  pacified,  in  some  degree,  the 
querulous  conspirators  who  lurked  in  his  camp  —  and 
placed  before  all  who  were  embarked  in  the  enterprise  the 
alternative  of  conquest  or  destruction.  But  one  vessel 
remained.  Nine  out  of  the  ten  were  dismantled  and  sunk. 
When  his  men  murmured  for  a  moment,  and  imagined 
themselves  betrayed,  lie  addressed  them  in  that  language 
of  bland  diplomacy  which  he  was  so  well  skilled  to  use 
whenever  the  occasion  required.  “  As  for  me,”  said  he, 
u  I  will  remain  here  whilst  there  is  one  to  bear  me  com¬ 
pany  !  Let  the  cravens  shrink  from  danger  and  go  home 
in  the  single  vessel  that  remains.  Let  them  hasten  to 
Cuba,  and  relate  how  they  deserted  their  commander  and 


46  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

comrades ;  and  there  let  them  wait  in  patience  till  we  re¬ 
turn  laden  with  the  spoils  of  Mexico !  ’  ’ 

This  was  an  appeal  that  rekindled  the  combined  en¬ 
thusiasm  and  avarice  of  the  despondent  murmurers ;  and 
the  reply  was  a  universal  shout:  “  To  Mexico!  to 
Mexico !  ’  ’ 

On  the  16th  of  August,  1519,  Cortez  set  out  with  his 
small  army  of  about  four  hundred  men,  now  swelled  by 
the  addition  of  thirteen  hundred  Indian  warriors  and  a 
thousand  porters,  and  accompanied  by  forty  of  the  chief 
Totonacs  as  hostages  and  advisers.  From  the  burning 
climate  of  the  coast  the  army  gradually  ascended  to  the 
cooler  regious  of  the  tier r a  templada,  and  tier r a  fria, 
encountering  all  degrees  of  temperature  on  the  route. 
After  a  journey  of  three  days,  the  forces  arrived  at  a  town 
on  one  of  the  table  lands  of  the  interior,  whose  chief 
magistrate  confirmed  the  stories  of  the  power  of  Monte¬ 
zuma.  Here  Cortez  tarried  three  days  for  repose,  and 
then  proceeded  towards  the  Bepublie  of  Tlascala,  which 
lay  directly  in  his  path,  and  with  whose  inhabitants  he 
hoped  to  form  an  alliance  founded  on  the  elements  of  dis¬ 
content  which  he  knew  existed  among  these  inveterate 
foes  of  the  central  Aztec  power.  But  he  was  mistaken  in 
his  calculations.  The  Tlascalans  were  not  so  easily  won 
as  his  allies,  the  Totonacs,  who,  dwelling  in  a  warmer 
climate,  had  not  the  hardier  virtues  of  these  mountain¬ 
eers.  The  Tlascalans  entertained  no  favorable  feeling 
towards  Montezuma,  but  they  nourished  quite  as  little 
cordiality  for  men  whose  characters  they  did  not  know, 
and  whose  purposes  they  had  cause  to  dread.  A  deadly 
hostility  to  the  Spaniards  was  consequently  soon  mani¬ 
fested.  Cortez  was  attacked  by  them  on  the  borders  of 
their  Bepublie,  and  fought  four  sharp  battles  with  fifty 
thousand  warriors  who  maintained,  in  all  the  conflicts, 
their  reputation  for  military  skill  and  hardihood.  At 
length  the  Tlascalans  were  forced  to  acknowledge  the  su¬ 
periority  of  the  invaders,  whom  they  could  not  overcome 
either  by  stratagem  or  battle,  and,  after  the  exchange  of 
embassies  and  gifts,  they  honored  our  hero  with  a 
triumphal  entry  into  their  capital. 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


47 


The  news  of  these  victories  as  well  as  of  the  fatal  alli¬ 
ance  which  ensued  with  the  Tlascalans,  was  soon  borne 
to  the  court  of  Montezuma,  who  began  to  tremble  for  the 
fate  of  his  empire  when  he  saw  the  fall  of  the  indomitable 
foes  who  had  held  him  so  long  at  bay.  Two  embassies  to 
Cortez  succeeded  each  other,  in  vain.  Presents  were  no 
longer  of  avail.  His  offer  of  tribute  to  the  Spanish  king 
was  not  listened  to.  All  requests  that  the  conqueror 
should  not  advance  towards  his  capital  were  unheeded. 
“  The  command  of  his  own  emperor,  ”  said  Cortez,  “  was 
the  only  reason  which  could  induce  him  to  disregard  the 
wishes  of  an  Aztec  prince,  for  whom  he  cherished  the  pro- 
foundest  respect!  ”  Soon  after,  another  embassy  came 
from  Montezuma  with  magnificent  gifts  and  an  invitation 
to  his  capital,  yet  with  a  request  that  he  would  break  with 
his  new  allies  and  approach  Mexico  through  the  friendly 
city  of  Cholula.  The  policy  of  this  request  on  the  part 
of  Montezuma,  will  be  seen  in  the  sequel.  Our  hero,  ac¬ 
companied  by  six  thousand  volunteers  from  Tlascala,  ad¬ 
vanced  towards  the  sacred  city  —  the  site  of  the  most 
splendid  temple  in  the  empire,  whose  foundations  yet 
remain  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The  six  intervening 
leagues  were  soon  crossed,  and  lie  entered  Cholula  with 
his  Spanish  army,  attended  by  no  other  Indians  than 
those  who  accompanied  him  from  Cempoalla.  At  first, 
the  General  and  his  companions  were  treated  hospitably, 
and  the  suspicions  which  had  been  instilled  into  his  mind 
by  the  Tlascalans  were  lulled  to  sleep.  Howev.er,  he  soon 
had  cause  to  become  fearful  of  treachery.  Messengers 
arrived  from  Montezuma,  and  his  entertainers  were  ob¬ 
served  to  be  less  gracious  in  their  demeanor.  It  was 
noticed  that  several  important  streets  had  been  barri¬ 
caded  or  converted  into  pitfalls,  whilst  stones,  missiles 
and  weapons  were  heaped  on  the  flat  roofs  of  houses. 
Besides  this,  Mariana  had  become  intimate  with  the  wife 
of  one  of  the  Caciques,  and  cunningly  drew  from  her 
gossiping  friend  the  whole  conspiracy  that  was  brewing 
against  the  adventurers.  Montezuma,  she  learned,  had 
stationed  twenty  thousand  Mexicans  near  the  city,  who 


48 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


together  with  the  Cholulans,  were  to  assault  the  invaders 
in  the  narrow  streets  and  avenues,  as  they  quitted  the 
town ;  and,  thus,  he  hoped,  by  successful  treachery,  to  rid 
the  land  of  such  dangerous  visitors  either  by  slaughter  in 
conflict,  or  to  offer  them,  when  made  captive,  upon  the 
altars  of  the  sacred  temple  in  Cholula  and  on  the  teocallis 
of  Mexico,  as  proper  sacrifices  to  the  bloody  gods  of  his 
country. 

Cortez,  however,  was  not  to  be  so  easily  outwitted  and 
entrapped.  He,  in  turn,  resorted  to  stratagem.  Con¬ 
centrating  all  his  Spanish  army,  and  concerting  a  signal 
for  co-operation  with  his  Indian  allies,  he  suddenly  fell 
upon  the  Cholulans  at  an  unexpected  moment.  Three 
thousand  of  the  citizens  perished  in  the  frightful  mas¬ 
sacre  that  ensued;  and  Cortez  pursued  his  uninterrupted 
w~ay  towards  the  fated  capital  of  the  Aztecs,  after  this 
awful  chastisement,  which  was  perhaps  needful  to  relieve 
him  from  the  danger  of  utter  annihilation  in  the  heart  of 
an  enemy’s  country  with  so  small  a  band  of  countrymen 
in  whom  he  could  confide. 

From  the  plain  of  Cholula  —  which  is  now  known  as 
the  fruitful  vale  of  Puebla  —  the  conqueror  ascended  the 
last  ridge  of  mountains  that  separated  him  from  the  city 
of  Mexico;  and,  as  he  turned  the  edge  of  the  Cordillera, 
the  beautiful  valley  was  at  once  revealed  to  him  in  all  its 
indescribable  loveliness.1  It  lay  at  his  feet,  surrounded 
by  the  placid  waters  of  Tezcoco.  The  sight  that  burst 
upon  the  Spaniards  from  this  lofty  eminence,  in  the 
language  of  Prescott,  was  that  of  the  vale  of  Tenochtitlan, 
as  it  was  called  by  the  natives,  “  which,  with  its 
picturesque  assemblage  of  water,  woodland,  and  culti¬ 
vated  planes;  its  shining  cities  and  shadowy  hills,  was 
spread  out  like  some  gay  and  gorgeous  panorama  before 
them.  In  the  highly  rarefied  atmosphere  of  these  upper 
regions,  even  remote  objects  have  a  brilliancy  of  coloring 
and  a  distinctness  of  outline  which  seems  to  annihilate 
distance.  Stretching  far  away  at  their  feet,  were  seen 

1  Between  nine  and  ten  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  at 
this  point  of  the  road. 


SOME  EARLY  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 


49 


noble  forests  of  oak,  sycamore,  and  cedar;  and  beyond, 
yellow  fields  of  maize  and  the  towering  maguey,  inter¬ 
mingled  with  orchards  and  blooming  gardens ;  for  flowers, 
in  such  demand  for  tlieir  religious  festivals,  were  even 
more  abundant  in  this  populous  valley,  than  in  other  parts 
of  Anahuac.  In  the  center  of  the  great  basin,  were  be¬ 
held  the  lakes,  occupying  then  a  much  larger  portion  of 
its  surface  then  at  present ;  their  borders  thickly  studded 
with  towns  and  hamlets,  and,  in  the  midst  —  like  some 
Indian  empress  with  her  coronal  of  pearls  — the  fair  city 
of  Mexico,  with  her  white  towers  and  pyramidal  temples 
reposing,  as  it  were,  on  the  bosom  of  the  waters  —  the 
far-famed  6  Venice  of  the  Aztecs.  ’  High  over  all  rose  the 
royal  hill  of  Chapultepec,  the  residence  of  the  Mexican 
monarchs,  belted  with  the  same  grove  of  gigantic  cyp¬ 
resses,  which  at  this  day  fling  their  broad  shadows  over 
the  land.  In  the  distance,  to  the  north,  beyond  the  blue 
waters  of  the  lake,  and  nearly  screened  by  intervening 
foliage,  was  seen  a  shining  speck,  the  rival  capital  of 
Tezcoco ;  and,  still  further  on,  the  dark  belt  of  porphyry, 
girdling  the  valley  around,  like  a  rich  setting  which 
Nature  had  devised  for  the  fairest  of  her  jewels.” 

Cortez  easily  descended  with  his  troops  by  the  moun¬ 
tain  road  toward  the  plain  of  the  valley;  and  as  he  passed 
along  the  levels,  or  through  the  numerous  villages  and 
hamlets,  he  endeavored  to  foster  and  foment  the  ill  feel¬ 
ing  which  he  found  secretly  existing  against  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  Mexican  Emperor.  When  he  had  advanced 
somewhat  into  the  heart  of  the  valley  he  was  met  by  an 
embassy  of  the  chief  lords  of  the  Aztec  court,  sent  to  him 
by  Montezuma,  with  gifts  of  considerable  value;  but  he 
rejected  a  proffered  bribe  of  “  four  loads  of  gold  to  the 
General,  and  one  to  each  of  his  captains,  with  a  yearly 
tribute  to  their  sovereign,”  provided  the  Spanish  troops 
would  quit  the  country.  Heedless  of  all  menaced  opposi¬ 
tion  as  well  as  appeals  to  his  avarice,  he  seems,  at  this 
period,  to  have  cast  aside  the  earlier  and  sordid  motives 
which  might  then  have  been  easily  satisfied  had  his  pur¬ 
suit  been  gold  alone.  The  most  abundant  wealth  was 


50 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


cast  at  liis  feet;  but  the  higher  qualities  of  his  nature 
were  now  allowed  the  fullest  play,  and  strengthened  him 
in  his  resolution  to  risk  all  in  the  daring  and  glorious 
project  of  subjecting  a  splendid  empire  to  his  control. 
Accordingly,  lie  advanced  through  Amaquemecan,  a  town 
of  several  thousand  inhabitants,  where  he  was  met  by  a 
nephew  of  the  Emperor,  the  Lord  of  Tezcoco,  who  had 
been  despatched  by  his  vacillating  uncle,  at  the  head  of 
a  large  number  of  influential  personages,  to  welcome  the 
invaders  to  the  capital.  The  friendly  summons  was  of 
course  not  disregarded  by  Cortez,  who  forthwith  pro¬ 
ceeded  along  the  most  splendid  and  massive  structure  of 
the  New  World  —  a  gigantic  causeway,  five  miles  in 
length,  constructed  of  huge  stones,  which  passed  along 
the  narrow  strait  of  sand  which  separated  the  waters  of 
Chaleo  from  those  of  Tezcoco.  The  lakes  were  covered 
with  boats  filled  with  natives.  Floating  islands,  made  of 
reeds  and  wicker-work,  covered  with  soil,  brimmed  with 
luxuriant  vegetation  whose  splendid  fruits  and  odorous 
petals  rested  on  the  waters.  Several  large  towns  were 
built  on  artificial  foundations  in  the  lake.  And,  every 
where,  around  the  Spaniards,  were  beheld  the  evidences 
of  a  dense  population,  whose  edifices,  agriculture,  and 
labors  denoted  a  high  degree  of  civilization  and  intelli¬ 
gence.  As  the  foreign  warriors  proceeded  onwards 
towards  the  city,  which  rose  before  them  with  its  temples, 
palaces  and  shrines,  covered  with  hard  stucco  that 
glistened  in  the  sun,  they  crossed  a  wooden  drawbridge 
in  the  causeway;  and,  as  they  passed  it,  they  felt  that  now, 
indeed,  if  they  faltered,  they  were  completely  in  the  grasp 
of  the  Mexicans,  and  more  effectually  cut  off  from  all 
retreat  than  they  had  been  when  the  fleet  was  destroyed 
at  Vera  Cruz. 

Near  this  spot  they  were  encountered  by  Montezuma 
with  his  court,  who  came  forth  in  regal  state  to  salute  his 
future  conqueror.  Surrounded  by  all  the  pageantry  and 
splendor  of  an  oriental  monarch,  he  descended  from  the 
litter  in  which  lie  was  borne  from  the  city,  and,  leaning 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  Lords  of  Tezcoco  and  of  Iztapala- 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


51 


pan  —  his  nephew  and  brother  —  he  advanced  towards  the 
Spaniards,  under  a  canopy  and  over  a  cotton  carpet, 
whilst  his  prostrate  subjects  manifested,  by  their  abject 
demeanor,  the  fear  or  respect  which  the  presence  of  their 
sovereign  inspired. 

As  this  mighty  prince  approached,  Cortez  halted  his 
men,  and,  advancing  with  a  few  of  his  principal  retainers, 
was  most  courteously  welcomed  by  Montezuma,  who, 
adroitly  concealing  his  chagrin,  diplomatically  expressed 
the  uncommon  delight  he  experienced  at  this  unexpected 
visit  of  the  strangers  to  his  capital.  Our  hero  thanked 
him  for  his  friendly  welcome  and  bounteous  gifts,  and 
hung  around  his  neck  a  chain  set  with  colored  crystal. 
Montezuma  then  opened  his  gates  to  the  Spaniards  and 
appointed  his  brother  to  conduct  the  General  with  his 
troops,  to  the  city. 

Here  he  found  a  spacious  edifice,  surrounded  by  a  wall, 
assigned  for  his  future  residence;  and,  having  stationed 
sentinels,  and  placed  his  cannon  on  the  battlements  so  as 
to  command  all  the  important  avenues  to  his  palace,  he 
proceeded  to  examine  the  city  and  to  acquaint  himself 
with  the  character,  occupations,  and  temper  of  the  people. 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS. 

THE  mariner’s  compass,  invented,  according  to  the 
generally  received  opinion,  about  1302,  by  one 
Flavio  Gioja  of  Amalfi,  enabled  vessels  to  sail  at 
a  distance  from  the  coasts,  and  to  guide  themselves  when 
out  of  sight  of  land.  Martin  Behaim,  with  two  physicians 
in  the  service  of  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  had  also 
added  to  nautical  science  by  discovering  the  way  of  direct¬ 
ing  the  voyager’s  course  according  to  the  position  of  the 
sun  in  the  heavens,  and  by  applying  the  astrolabe  to  the 
purposes  of  navigation.  These  improvements  being 
adopted,  the  commercial  question  of  the  western  route  in- 
Yol.  IV  —  4 


52  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

creased  daily  in  importance  in  Spain,  Portugal  and  Italy, 
countries  in  which  three-quarters  of  the  science  is  made 
up  of  imagination.  There  was  discussion,  there  were 
writings.  The  excited  world  of  commerce  disputed  with 
the  world  of  science.  Facts,  systems,  doctrines,  were 
grouped  together.  The  time  was  come  when  there  was 
needed  one  single  intelligence  to  collect  together  and  as¬ 
similate  the  various  floating  ideas.  This  intelligence  was 
found.  At  length  all  the  scattered  notions  were  gathered 
together  in  the  mind  of  one  man,  who  possessed  in  a  re¬ 
markable  degree  genius,  perseverance,  and  boldness. 

This  man  was  no  other  than  Christopher  Columbus, 
born,  probably  near  Genoa,  about  the  year  1436.  We  say 
“  probably,”  for  the  towns  of  Cogoreo  and  Nervi  dispute 
with  Savona  and  Genoa,  the  honor  of  having  given  him 
birth.  The  date  of  his  birth  varies,  with  different  biog¬ 
raphers,  from  1430  to  1445,  but  the  year  1436  would  ap¬ 
pear  to  be  the  correct  one,  according  to  the  most  reliable 
documents.  The  family  of  Columbus  was  of  humble 
origin;  his  father,  Domenic  Columbus,  a.  manufacturer  of 
woollen  stuffs,  seems,  however,  to  have  been  in  sufficiently 
easy  circumstances  to  enable  him  to  give  his  children  a 
more  than  ordinary  good  education.  The  young  Chris¬ 
topher,  the  eldest  of  the  family,  was  sent  to  the  University 
of  Pavia,  there  to  study  Grammar,  Latin,  Geography,  As¬ 
tronomy,  and  Navigation. 

At  fourteen  years  of  age  Christopher  left  school  and 
went  to  sea ;  from  this  time  until  1487,  very  little  is  known 
of  his  career.  The  most  probable  account  to  be  gathered 
from  contemporary  documents  and  from  the  writings  of 
Columbus  himself,  is  that  the  young  sailor  visited  the 
Levant,  the  west,  the  north,  England  several  times,  Portu¬ 
gal,  the  coast  of  Guinea,  and  the  islands  off  Africa,  per¬ 
haps  even  Greenland,  for  by  the  age  of  forty,  “  he  had 
sailed  to  every  part  that  had  ever  been  sailed  to  before.” 
He  was  looked  upon  as  a  thoroughly  competent  mariner, 
and  his  reputation  led  to  his  being  chosen  for  the  command 
of  the  Genoese  galleys  in  the  war  which  that  Republic 
was  waging  against  Venice.  He  afterward  made  an  ex- 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


53 


pedition,  in  the  service  of  Rene,  king  of  Anjou,  to  the 
coasts  of  Barbary,  and  in  1477,  he  went  to  explore  the 
countries  beyond  Iceland. 

This  voyage  being  successfully  terminated,  Christopher 
Columbus  returned  to  his  home  in  Lisbon.  He  there  mar¬ 
ried  the  daughter  of  an  Italian  gentleman,  Bartolomeo 
Munez  Perestrello,  a  sailor  like  himself  and  deeply  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  geographical  ideas  of  the  day.  The  wife  of 
Columbus,  Doha  Filippa,  was  without  fortune,  and  Co¬ 
lumbus,  having  none  himself,  felt  he  must  work  for  the 
support  of  himself  and  his  family.  The  future  dis¬ 
coverer,  therefore,  set  to  work  to  make  picture-books, 
terrestrial  globes,  maps,  and  nautical  charts,  and  con¬ 
tinued  in  this  employment  until  1484,  but  without  at  the 
same  time  abandoning  his  scientific  and  literary  pursuits. 
It  seems  probable  even,  that  during  this  period  he  studied 
deeply,  and  attained  to  knowledge  far  beyond  that  pos¬ 
sessed  by  most  of  the  sailors  of  his  time.  Can  it  have 
been  that  at  this  time  “  the  Great  Idea  ”  first  arose  in  his 
mind?  It  may  have  been  so.  He  was  following  assidu¬ 
ously  the  discussions  relative  to  the  western  routes,  and 
the  facility  of  communication  by  the  west,  between 
Europe  and  Asia.  His  correspondence  proves  that  he 
shared  the  opinion  of  Aristotle  as  to  the  relatively  short 
distance  separating  the  extreme  shores  of  the  old  Con¬ 
tinent.  He  wrote  frequently  to  the  most  distinguished 
savants  of  his  time.  Martin  Behaim,  of  whom  we  have 
already  spoken,  was  among  his  correspondents,  and  also 
the  celebrated  Florentine  astronomer,  Toscanelli,  whose 
opinions  in  some  degree  influenced  those  of  Columbus. 

At  this  time  Columbus  was  a  tall  man,  of  robust  and 
noble  presence.  His  face  was  long,  he  had  an  aquiline 
nose,  high  cheek-bones,  eyes  clear  and  full  of  fire;  he  had 
a  bright  complexion,  and  his  face  was  much  covered  with 
freckles.  .  .  . 

At  the  time  when  Christopher  Columbus  was  in  corre¬ 
spondence  with  the  astronomer  Toscanelli,  he  learned  that 
the  latter,  at  the  request  of  Alphonse  V.,  King  of  Portu¬ 
gal,  had  sent  to  the  king  a  learned  Memoir  upon  the  possi- 


54 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


bility  of  reaching  the  Indies  by  the  western  route.  Co¬ 
lumbus  was  consulted,  and  supported  the  ideas  of  Tos- 
canelli  with  all  his  influence;  but  without  result,  for  the 
King  of  Portugal  who  was  engaged  at  the  time  in  war 
with  Spain,  died,  without  having  been  able  to  give  any 
attention  to  maritime  discoveries.  His  successor,  John 
II.,  adopted  the  plans  of  Columbus  and  Tosoanelli  with 
enthusiasm.  At  the  same  time,  with  most  reprehensible 
cunning,  he  tried  to  deprive  these  two  savants  of  the 
benefit  of  their  proposition ;  without  telling  them,  he  sent 
out  a  caravel  to  attempt  this  great  enterprise,  and  to 
reach  China  by  crossing  the  Atlantic.  But  he  had  not 
reckoned  upon  the  inexperience  of  his  pilots,  nor  upon  the 
violence  of  the  storms  which  they  might  encounter  ;  the 
result  was,  that  some  days  after  their  departure,  a  hurri¬ 
cane  brought  back  to  Lisbon  the  sailors  of  the  Portuguese 
king.  Columbus  was  justly  wounded  by  this  unworthy 
action,  and  felt  that  he  could  not  reckon  upon  a  king  who 
had  so  deceived  him.  His  wife  being  dead,  he  left  Spain 
with  his  son  Diego,  toward  the  end  of  the  year  1484.  It 
is  thought  that  he  went  to  Genoa  and  to  Venice,  where  his 
projects  of  transoceanic  navigation  were  but  badly  re¬ 
ceived. 

However  it  may  have  been,  in  1485  we  find  him  again 
in  Spain.  This  great  man  was  poor,  without  resources. 
He  travelled  on  foot,  carrying  Diego,  his  little  son  of  ten 
years  old,  in  his  arms.  Prom  this  period  of  his  life,  his¬ 
tory  follows  him  step  by  step;  she  no  more  loses  sight  of 
him,  and  she  has  preserved  to  posterity  the  smallest  in¬ 
cidents  of  this  grand  existence.  We  find  Columbus  ar¬ 
rived  in  Andulasia,  only  half  a  league  from  the  port  of 
Palos.  Destitute,  and  dying  of  hunger,  he  knocked  at 
the  door  of  a  Franciscan  convent,  dedicated  to  Santa 
Maria  de  Eabida,  and  asked  for  a  little  bread  and  water 
for  his  poor  child  and  for  himself.  The  superior  of  the 
convent,  Juan  Perez  de  Marchena,  gave  hospitality  to  the 
unfortunate  traveller.  He  questioned  him,  and  was  sur¬ 
prised  by  the  nobleness  of  his  language,  but  still  more 
astonished  was  he  by  the  boldness  of  the  ideas  of  Colum- 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


55 


bus,  who  made  the  good  Father  the  confidant  of  his 
aspirations.  For  several  months  the  wandering  sailor 
remained  in  this  hospitable  convent;  some  of  the  monks 
were  learned  men,  and  interested  themselves  about  him 
and  his  projects ;  they  studied  his  plans ;  they  mentioned 
him  to  some  of  the  well-known  navigators  of  the  time; 
and  we  must  give  them  the  credit  of  having  been  the  first 
to  believe  in  the  genius  of  Christopher  Columbus.  Juan 
Perez  showed  still  greater  kindness;  he  offered  to  take 
upon  himself  the  charge  of  the  education  of  Diego,  and 
gave  to  Columbus  a  letter  of  recommendation  addressed 
to  the  confessor  of  the  Queen  of  Castile. 

This  confessor,  prior  of  the  monastery  of  Prado,  was 
deep  in  the  confidence  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella ;  but  he 
did  not  approve  of  the  projects  of  the  Genoese  navigator, 
and  he  rendered  him  no  service  whatever  with  his  royal 
penitent.  Columbus  must  still  resign  himself  to  wait. 
He  went  to  live  at  Cordova,  where  the  court  was  soon  to 
come,  and  for  livelihood  he  resumed  his  trade  of  picture- 
seller.  Is  it  possible  to  quote  from  the  lives  of  illustrious 
men  an  instance  of  a  more  trying  existence  than  this  of 
the  great  navigator?  Could  ill-fortune  have  assailed  any 
man  with  more  cruel  blows  ?  But  this  indomitable,  inde¬ 
fatigable  man  of  genius,  rising  up  again  after  each  trial, 
did  not  despair.  He  felt  within  him  the  sacred  fire  of 
genius,  he  worked  on  unceasingly,  he  visited  influential 
persons,  spreading  his  ideas  and  defending  them,  and 
combating  all  objections  with  the  most  heroic  energy. 
At  length  he  obtained  the  protection  of  the  great  cardinal- 
archbishop  of  Toledo,  Pedro  Gonzalez  de  Mendoza,  and 
thanks  to  him,  was  admitted  into  the  presence  of  the  King 
and  Queen  of  Spain. 

Christopher  Columbus  must  have  imagined  himself  at 
the  end  of  all  his  troubles.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  re¬ 
ceived  his  project  favorably,  and  caused  it  to  be  sub¬ 
mitted  for  examination  to  a  council  of  learned  men,  con¬ 
sisting  of  bishops  and  monks  who  were  gathered  together 
ad  hoc  in  a  Dominican  convent  at  Salamanca.  But  the 
unfortunate  pleader  was  not  yet  at  the  end  of  his  vicissi- 


56  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

tudes.  In  tills  meeting  at  Salamanca  all  his  judges  were 
against  him.  The  truth  was,  that  his  ideas  interfered 
with  the  religions  notions  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
Fathers  of  the  Church  had  denied  the  sphericity  of 
the  earth,  and  since  the  earth  was  not  round  they 
declared  that  a  voyage  of  circumnavigation  was  ab¬ 
solutely  contrary  to  the  Bible,  and  could  not  therefore, 
on  any  logical  theory,  be  undertaken.  “  Besides,”  said 
these  theologians,  “  if  any  one  should,  ever  succeed  in 
descending  into  the  other  hemisphere  liow  could  he  ever 
mount  up  again  into  this  one?  ”  This  manner  of  arguing 
was  a  very  formidable  one  at  this  period;  for  Christopher 
Columbus  saw  himself,  in  consequence,  always  accused  of 
heresy,  the  most  unpardonable  crime  which  could  be  com¬ 
mitted  in  this  far  off  intolerant  time.  He  escaped  any  evil 
consequences  from  the  hostile  disposition  of  the  Council, 
but  the  execution  of  his  project  was  again  adjourned. 

Long  years  passed  away.  The  unfortunate  man  of 
genius,  despairing  of  success  in  Spain,  sent  his  brother  to 
England  to  make  an  offer  of  his  services  to  the  king, 
Henry  VII.  But  it  is  probable  that  the  king  gave  no  an¬ 
swer.  Then  Christopher  Columbus  turned  again  with  un¬ 
abated  perseverance  to  Ferdinand,  but  Ferdinand  was  at 
this  time  engaged  in  a  war  of  extermination  against  the 
Moors,  and  it  was  not  until  1492,  when  he  had  chased  the 
Moors  from  Spain,  that  he  was  able  again  to  listen  to  the 
solicitations  of  the  (Genoese  sailor. 

This  time  the  affair  was  thoroughly  considered  and  the 
king  consented  to  the  enterprise.  But  Columbus,  as  is 
the  manner  of  proud  natures,  wished  to  impose  his  own 
conditions.  They  bargained  over  that  which  should  en¬ 
rich  Spain!  Columbus,  in  disgust,  was  without  doubt 
ready  to  quit,  and  forever,  this  ungrateful  country,  but 
Isabella,  touched  by  the  thought  of  the  unbelievers  of 
Asia,  whom  she  hoped  to  convert  to  the  Catholic  faith, 
ordered  Columbus  to  be  recalled,  and  then  acceded  to  all 
his  demands. 

.  Columbus  was  in  the  fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age  when  he 
signed  a  treaty  with  the  King  of  Spain  at  Santa  Fe  on 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


57 


the  174h  of  April,  1492,  being  eighteen  years  after  he  had 
first  conceived  his  project,  and  seven,  years  from  the  time 
of  liis  quitting  the  monastery  of  Palos.  By  this  solemn 
convention,  the  dignity  of  high  admiral  was  to  belong  to 
Columbus  in  all  the  lands  which  he  might  discover,  and 
this  dignity  was  to  descend  in  perpetuity  to  his  heirs  and 
successors.  He  was  named  viceroy  and  governor  of  the 
new  possessions  which  he  hoped  to  conquer  in  the  rich 
countries  of  Asia,  and  one-tentli  part  of  the  pearls,  pre¬ 
cious  stones,  gold,  silver,  spices,  provisions,  and  merchan¬ 
dise  of  whatever  kind,  which  might  be  acquired  in  any 
manner  whatsoever,  within  the  limits  of  his  jurisdiction, 
was  of  right  to  belong  to  him. 

All  was  arranged,  and  at  length  Columbus  was  to  put 
his  cherished  projects  in  execution.  But  let  us  repeat,  he 
had  no  thought  of  meeting  with  the  New  World,  of  the 
existence  of  which  he  had  not  the  faintest  suspicion.  His 
aim  was  to  “  explore  the  East  by  the  West,  and  to  pass 
by  the  way  of  the  West  to  the  Land  whence  comes  the 
spices.  ’ ?  One  may  even  aver  that.  Columbus  died  in  the 
belief  that  he  had  arrived  at  the  shores  of  Asia,  and  never 
knew  himself  that  he  had  made  the  discovery  of  America. 
But  this  in  no  way  lessens  his  glory;  the  meeting  with  the 
new  Continent  was  but  an  accident.  The  real  cause  of 
the  immortal  renown  of  Columbus  was  that  audacity  of 
genius  which  induced  him  to  brave  the  dangers  of  an  un¬ 
known  ocean,  to  separate  himself  afar  from  those  familiar 
shores,  which,  until  now,  navigators  had  never  ventured 
to  quit,  to  adventure  himself  upon  the  waves  of  the  At¬ 
lantic  Ocean  in  the  frail  ships  of  the  period,  which  the 
first  tempest  might  engulf,  to  launch  himself,  in  a  word, 
upon  the  deep  darkness  of  an  unknown  sea. 

The  preparations  began,  Columbus  entering  into  an  ar¬ 
rangement  with  some  rich  navigators  of  Palos,  the  three 
brothers  Pinzon,  who  made  the  necessary  advances  for 
defraying  the  expenses  of  fitting  out  the  ships.  Three 
caravels,  named  the  “  Gallega,”  the  “  Nina, 7  ’  and  the 
4  ‘  Pinta,  ’  ’  were  equipped  in  the  port  of  Palos.  The  ‘  ‘  Gal- 
lega  ”  was  destined  to  carry  the  admiral,  who  changed 


58 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


her  name  to  the  “  Santa-Maria.”  The  “  Pinta  ”  was 
commanded  by  Martin  Alonzo  Pinzon,  and  the  “  Nina  ” 
by  his  two  brothers,  Francis  Martin,  and  Vincent  Yanez 
Pinzon.  It  was  difficult  to  man  the  ships,  sailors  gener¬ 
ally  being  frightened  at  the  enterprise,  but  at  last  the  cap¬ 
tains  succeeded  in  getting  together  one  hundred  and 
twenty  men,  and  on  Friday,  August  3,  1492,  the  admiral, 
crossing  at  eight  o  ’clock  in  the  morning  the  bar  of  Saltez, 
off  the  town  of  Huelva,  in  Andalusia,  adventured  himself 
with  his  three  half-decked  caravels  upon  the  Atlantic 
waves. 

During  the  first  day’s  voyage,  the  admiral— the  title 
by  which  he  is  usually  known  in  the  various  accounts  of 
his  exploits— bearing  directly  southward,  sailed  forty-five 
miles  before  sunset;  turning  then  directly  to  the  south¬ 
east,  he  steered  for  the  Canaries,  in  order  to  repair  the 
“  Pinta,”  which  had  unshipped  her  rudder,  an  accident 
caused  perhaps  by  the  ill-will  of  the  steersman,  who 
dreaded  the  voyage.  Ten  days  later  Columbus  cast  an¬ 
chor  before  the  Great  Canary  Island,  where  the  rudder  of 
the  caravel  was  repaired.  Nineteen  days  afterward  he 
arrived  before  Gomera,  where  the  inhabitants  assured 
him  of  the  existence  of  an  unknown  land  in  the  west  of  the 
Archipelago.  He  did  not  leave  Gomera  until  the  6th  of 
September.  He  had  received  warning  that  three  Portu¬ 
guese  ships  awaited  him  in  the  open  sea,  with  the  inten¬ 
tion  of  barring  his  passage ;  however,  without  taking  any 
heed  of  this  news,  he  put  to  sea,  cleverly  avoided  meeting 
his  enemies,  and  steering  directly  westward,  he  lost  all 
sight  of  land.  During  the  voyage  the  admiral  took  care 
to  conceal  from  his  companions  the  true  distance  tra¬ 
versed  each  da}^;  he  made  it  appear  less  than  it  really  was 
in  the  daily  abstracts  of  his  observations,  that  he  might 
not  add  to  the  fear  already  felt  by  the  sailors,  by  letting 
them  know  the  real  distance  which  separated  them  from 
Europe.  Each  day  he  watched  the  compasses  with  atten¬ 
tion,  and  it  is  to  him  we  owe  the  discovery  of  the  magnetic 
variation,  of  which  he  took  account  in  his  calculations. 
The  pilots,  however,  were  much  disturbed  on  seeing  the 
compasses  all  “  northwesters,”  as  they  expressed  it. 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


59 


On  the  14th  of  September  the  sailors  saw  a  swallow  and 
some  tropic-birds.  The  sight  of  these  birds  was  an  evi¬ 
dence  of  land  being  near,  for  they  do  not  usually  fly  more 
than  about  seventy  miles  out  to  sea.  The  temperature 
was  very  mild,  the  weather  magnificent;  the  wind  blew 
from  the  east  and  wafted  the  caravels  in  the  desired  direc¬ 
tion.  But  it  was  exactly  this  continuance  of  east  wind 
which  frightened  the  greater  part  of  the  sailors,  who  saw 
in  this  persistence,  so  favorable  for  the  outward  voyage, 
the  promise  of  a  formidable  obstacle  to  their  return  home. 
On  the  16th  of  September,  some  tufts  of  sea-weed,  still 
fresh,  were  seen  floating  on  the  waves.  But  no  land  was 
to  be  seen,  and  this  sea-weed  might  possibly  indicate  the 
presence  of  submarine  rocks,  and  not  of  the  shores  of  a 
continent.  On  the  17th,  thirty- five  days  after  the  depar¬ 
ture  of  the  expedition,  floating  weeds  were  frequently 
seen,  and  upon  one  mass  of  weed  was  found  a  live  cray¬ 
fish,  a  sure  sign  this  of  the  proximity  of  land. 

During  the  following  days  a  large  number  of  birds, 
such  as  gannets,  sea-swallows,  and  tropic-birds,  flew 
around  the  caravels.  Columbus  turned  their  presence  to 
account  as  a  means  of  reassuring  his  companions,  who 
were  beginning  to  be  terribly  frightened  at  not  meeting 
with  land  after  six  weeks  of  sailing.  His  own  confidence 
never  abated,  but  putting  firm  trust  in  God,  he  often  ad¬ 
dressed  energetic  words  of  comfort  to  those  around  him, 
and  made  them  each  evening  chant  the  Salve  Begina,  or 
some  other  hymn  to  the  Virgin.  At  the  words  of  this 
heroic  man,  so  noble,  so  sure  of  himself,  so  superior  to 
all  human  weaknesses,  the  courage  of  the  sailors  revived, 
and  they  again  went  onward. 

We  can  well  imagine  how  anxiously  both  officers  and 
men  scanned  the  western  horizon  toward  which  they  were 
steering.  Each  one  had  a  pecuniary  motive  for  wishing 
to  be  the  first  to  descry  the  new  Continent,  King  Ferdin¬ 
and  having  promised  a  reward  of  10,000  maravedis,  or 
two  thousand  dollars,  to  the  first  discoverer.  The  latter 
days  of  the  month  of  September  were  enlivened  by  the 
presence  of  numerous  large  birds,  flying  in  couples,  a  sign 


60 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


tliat  they  were  not  far  away  from  home.  So  Columbus 
retained  his  unshaken  conviction  that  land  could  not  be 
far  oft. 

On  the  1st  of  October,  the  admiral  announced  to  his 
companions  that  they  had  made  1,272  miles  to  the  west 
since  leaving  Ferro ;  in  reality,  the  distance  traversed  ex¬ 
ceeded  2,100  miles,  and  of  this  Columbus  was  quite  aware, 
but  persisted  in  his  policy  of  disguising  the  truth  in  this 
particular.  On  the  7th  of  October,  the  crews  were  ex¬ 
cited  by  hearing  discharges  of  musketry  from  the 
“  Nina,”  the  commanders  of  which,  the  two  brothers  Pin- 
zon,  thought  they  had  descried  land ;  they  soon  found, 
however,  that  they  had  been  mistaken.  Still,  on  their 
representing  that  they  had  seen  some  parroquets  dying 
in  a  southwesterly  direction,  the  admiral  consented  to 
change  his  route  so  far  as  to  steer  some  points  to  the 
south,  a  change  which  had  happy  consequences  in  the  fu¬ 
ture,  for  had  they  continued  to  run  directly  westward, 
the  caravels  would  have  been  aground  upon  the  great 
Bahama  Bank,  and  would  probably  have  been  altogether 
destroyed. 

Still  the  ardently  desired  land  did  not  appear.  Each 
evening  the  sun  as  it  went  down  dipped  behind  an  inter¬ 
minable  horizon  of  water.  The  crews,  who  had  several 
times  been  the  victims  of  an  optical  delusion,  now  began 
to  murmur  against  Columbus,  16  the  Genoese,  the  for¬ 
eigner/'  who  had  enticed  them  so  far  away  from  their 
country.  Some  symptoms  of  mutiny  had  already  shown 
themselves  on  board  the  vessels,  when,  on  the  10th  of  Oc¬ 
tober,  the  sailors  openly  declared  that  they  would  go  no 
farther. 

On  the  lltli  of  October,  the  admiral  noticed  alongside 
of  his  vessel,  a  reed  still  green,  floating  upon  the  top  of  a 
large  wave;  at  the  same  time  the  crew  of  the  “  Pinta  ” 
hoisted  on  board  another  reed,  a  small  board,  and  a  little 
stick,  which  appeared  to  have  been  cut  with  an  instrument 
of  iron;  it  was  evident  that  human  hands  had  been  em¬ 
ployed  upon  these  things.  Almost  at  the  same  moment, 
the  men  of  the  “  Nina  ”  perceived  a  branch  of  some 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


61 


thorny  tree  covered  with  blossoms.  At  all  this  every  one 
rejoiced  exceedingly;  there  could  be  no  doubt  now  of  the 
proximity  of  the  coast.  Night  fell  over  the  sea.  The 
“  Pinta,”  the  best  sailor  of  the  three  vessels,  was  leading. 
Already,  Columbus  himself,  and  one  Rodrigo  •  Sanchez, 
comptroller  of  the  expedition,  had  thought  (hey  had  seen  * 
a  light  moving  amidst  the  shadows  of  the  horizon,  when 
a  sailor  named  Rodrigo  on  board  the  “  Pinta,”  cried  out, 

“  Land,  land.” 

It  was  at  two  o’clock  in  the  morning  that  the. land  was 
first  seen,  when  the  caravels  were  not  two  hours’  sail 
away  from  it.  At  once  all  the  crews,  deeply  moved, 
joined  in  singing  together  the  Salve  Regina.  With  the 
first  rays  of  the  sun  they  saw  a  little  island,  six  miles  to 
windward  of  them.  It  was  one  of  the  Bahama  group; 
Columbus  named  it  San  Salvador,  and  immediately  fall¬ 
ing  on  his  knees,  he  began  to  repeat  the  hymn  of  Saint 
Ambrose  and  Saint  Augustine:  “  Te  Deum  Laudamus, 
Te  Dominum  confitemur.  ” 

At  this  moment,  some  naked  savages  appeared  upon  the 
newly  discovered  coast.  Columbus  had  his  long-boat  low¬ 
ered,  and  got  into  it  with  Alonzo  and  Yanez  Pinzon,  the 
comptroller  Rodrigo,  the  secretary  Descovedo,  and  some 
others.  He  landed  upon  the  shore,  carrying  in  his  hand 
the  royal  banner,  while  the  two  captains  bore  between 
them  the  green  banner  of  the  Cross,  upon  which  were  in¬ 
terlaced  the  initials  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Then  the 
admiral  solemnly  took  possession  of  the  island  in  the 
name  of  the  King  and  Queen  of  Spain,  and  caused  a  rec¬ 
ord  of  the  act  to  be  drawn  up.  During  this  ceremony  the 
natives  came  round  Columbus  and  his  companions. 
Columbus  gives  the  following  account  of  the  scene : 

“  Desiring  to  inspire  them  (the  natives)  with  friend¬ 
ship  for  us,  and  being  persuaded,  on  seeing  them, 
that  they  would  confide  the  more  readily  in  us,  and 
be  the  better  disposed  toward  embracing  our  Holy  Faith, 
if  we  used  mildness  in  persuading  them,  rather  than  if  we 
had  recourse  to  force,  I  caused  to  be  given  to>  several 
among  them,  colored  caps,  and  also  glass  beads,  which 


62 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


they  put  around  their  necks.  I  added  various  other  ar¬ 
ticles  of  small  value;  they  testified  great  joy,  and  showed 
so  much  gratitude  that  we  marveled  greatly  at  it.  When 
we  were  re-embarking,  they  swam  towards  us,  to  offer  us 
parroquets,  balls  of  cotton  thread,  zagayes  (or  long 
darts),  and  many  other  things;  in  exchange  we  gave  them 
some  small  glass  beads,  little  bells,  and  other  objects. 
They  gave  us  all  they  had,  but  they  appeared  to  me  to  be 
very  poor.  The  men  and  women  both  were  as  naked  as 
when  they  were  born.  Among  those  whom  we  saw,  one 
woman  was  rather  young,  and  none  of  the  men  appeared 
to  be  more  than  thirty  years  of  age.  They  were  well 
made,  their  figures  handsome,  and  their  faces  agreeable. 
Their  hair,  as  coarse  as  that  of  a  horse’s  tail,  hung  down 
in  front  as  low  as  their  eyebrows ;  behind  it  formed  a  long 
mass,  which  they  never  cut.  There  are  some  who  paint 
themselves  with  a  blackish  pigment;  their  natural  color 
being  neither  black  nor  white,  but  similar  to  that  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Canary  Islands;  some  paint  them¬ 
selves  with  white,  some  with  red,  or  any  other  color,  either 
covering  the  whole  body  with  it,  or  the  whole  face,  or 
perhaps  only  the  eyes,  or  the  nose.  They  do  not  carry 
arms  like  our  people,  and  do  not  know  what  they  are. 
When  I  showed  them  some  swords,  they  laid  hold  of  them 
by  the  blades,  and  cut  their  fingers.  They  have  no  iron; 
their  zagayes  are  sticks,  the  tip  is  not  of  iron,  but  some¬ 
times  made  of  a  fish  tooth,  or  of  some  other  hard  sub¬ 
stance.  They  have  much  grace  in  their  movements.  I 
remarked  that  several  had  scars  upon  their  bodies,  and  I 
asked  them,  by  means  of  signs,  how  they  had  been  wound¬ 
ed.  They  answered  in  the  same  manner,  that  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  the  neighboring  islands  had  come  to  attack  them, 
and  make  them  prisoners,  and  that  they  had  defended 
themselves.  I  thought  then,  and  I  still  think,  that  they 
must  have  come  from  the  mainland  to  make  them  prison¬ 
ers  for  slaves ;  they  would  be  faithful  and  gentle  servants. 
They  seem  to  have  the  power  of  repeating  quickly  what 
they  hear.  I  am  persuaded  that  they  might  be  converted 
to  Christianity  without  difficulty,  for  I  believe  they  be¬ 
long  to  no  sect.” 


CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 


63 


When  Columbus  returned  on  board,  several  of  the  sav¬ 
ages  swam  after  his  boat;  the  next  day,  the  13th,  they 
came  in  crowds  around  the  ships,  on  board  of  enormous 
canoes  shaped  out  of  the  trunks  of  trees ;  they  were  guided 
by  means  of  a  kind  of  baker’s  shovel,  and  some  of  the 
canoes  were  capable  of  holding  forty  men.  Several  na¬ 
tives  wore  little  plates  of  gold  hanging  from  their  nos¬ 
trils  ;  they  appeared  much  surprised  at  the  arrival  of  the 
strangers,  and  quite  believed  that  these  white  men  must 
have  fallen  from  the  skies.  It  was  with  a  mixture  of  re¬ 
spect  and  curiosity  that  they  touched  the  garments  of  the 
Spaniards,  considering  them,  doubtless,  a  kind  of  natural 
plumage.  The  scarlet  coat  of  the  admiral  excited  their 
admiration  above  everything,  and  it  was  evident  that  they 
looked  upon  Columbus  as  a  parroquet  of  a  superior  spe¬ 
cies;  at  once  they  seemed  to  recognize  him  as  the  chief 
among  the  strangers. 

So  Columbus  and  his  followers  visited  this  new  island 
of  San  Salvador.  They  were  never  tired  of  admiring  the 
beauty  of  its  situation,  its  magnificent  groves,  its  running 
streams,  and  verdant  meadows.  The  fauna  of  the  island 
offered  little  variety;  parroquets  of  radiant  plumage 
abounded  among  the  trees,  but  they  appeared  to  be  the 
only  species  of  birds  upon  the  island.  San  Salvador  pre¬ 
sented  an  almost  flat  plateau  of  which  no  mountain  broke 
the  uniformity;  a  small  lake  occupied  the  center  of  the 
island.  The  explorers  imagined  that  San  Salvador  must 
contain  great  mineral  riches,  since  the  inhabitants  were 
adorned  with  ornaments  of  gold.  But  was  this  precious 
metal  derived  from  the  island  itself  ?  Upon  this  point  the 
admiral  questioned  the  natives,  and  succeeded  in  learning 
from  them,  by  means  of  signs,  that  in  turning  the  island 
and  sailing  toward  the  south,  the  admiral  would  find  a 
country  of  which  the  king  possessed  great  vessels  of  gold 
and  immense  riches.  The  next  morning,  at  daybreak, 
Columbus  gave  orders  to  have  the  ships  prepared  for  sea; 
he  set  sail,  and  steered  toward  the  continent  of  which  the 
natives  had  spoken,  which,  as  he  imagined,  could  be  none 
other  than  Cipango. 


64 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Here  an  important  observation  must  be  made,  showing 
the  state  of  geographical  knowledge  at  this  period:  viz., 
that  Columbus  now  believed  himself  to  have  arrived  at 
Asia;  Cipango  being  the  name  given  by  Marco  Polo  to 
Japan.  This  error  of  the  admiral,  shared  in  by  all  his 
companions,  was  not  rectified  until  many  years  afterward, 
and  thus,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  the  great  navi¬ 
gator  after  four  successive  voyages  to  the  islands,  died, 
without  knowing  that  he  had  discovered  a  new  world.  It 
is  beyond  doubt  that  the  sailors  of  Columbus,  and  Co¬ 
lumbus  himself,  imagined  that  they  had  arrived  during 
the  night  of  the  12th  of  October,  1492,  either  at  Japan,  or 
China,  or  the  Indies.  This  is  the  reason  why  America  so 
long  bore  the  name  of  the  “  Western  Indies,”  and  why 
the  aborigines  of  this  continent,  in  Brazil  and  in  Mexico, 
as  well  as  in  the  United  States,  are  still  classed  under  the 
general  appellation  of  “  Indians.”  .  .  . 

At  last,  on  the  4th  of  March,  the  pilots  sighted  the 
mouth  of  the  Tagus,  in  which  the  “  Nina  ”  took  refuge, 
while  the  ‘ 4  Pinta,  ’  ’  caught  by  the  wind,  was  carried  away 
into  the  Bay  of  Biscay. 

The  Portuguese  welcomed  the  admiral  kindly,  the  king 
even  admitting  him  to  an  audience.  Columbus  was  in 
haste  to  return  to  Spain;  as  soon  as  the  weather  per¬ 
mitted,  the  “  Nina  ”  again  set  sail  and  at  mid-day  on  the 
15th  of  March,  she  cast  anchor  in  the  port  of  Palos,  after 
seven  months  and  a  half  of  navigation,  during  which  Co¬ 
lumbus  had  discovered  the  islands  of  San  Salvador,  Con¬ 
ception,  Great  Exuma,  Long  Island,  the  Mucaras,  Cuba, 
and  San  Domingo. 

The  court  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  was  then  at  Bar¬ 
celona,  whither  the  admiral  was  summoned.  He  set  out 
immediately,  taking  with  him  the  Indians  whom  he  had 
brought  from  the  New  World.  The  enthusiasm  he  ex¬ 
cited  was  extreme;  from  all  parts  the  people  ran  to  look 
at  him  as  he  passed,  rendering  him  royal  honors.  His 
entry  into  Barcelona  was  magnificent.  The  king  and 
queen,  with  all  the  grandees  of  Spain,  received  him  with 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CUBA 


65 


great  pomp  at  the  palace  of  tlie  Deputation.  He  there 
gave  an  account  of  his  wonderful  voyage,  and  presented 
the  specimens  of  gold  which  he  had  brought  with  him; 
then  all  the  assembly  knelt  down  and  chanted  the  Te 
Deum.  Christopher  Columbus  was  afterwards  ennobled 
by  letters  patent,  and  the  king  granted  him  a  coat  of  arms 
bearing  this  device:  “  To  Castile  and  Leon,  Columbus 
gives  a  New  World.”  The  fame  of  the  Genoese  navi¬ 
gator  rang  through  the  whole  of  Europe;  the  Indians 
whom  he  brought  with  him  were  baptized  in  presence  of 
the  whole  court ;  and,  the  man  of  genius,  so  long  poor  and 
unknown,  had  now  risen  to  the  highest  point  of  celebrity. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CUBA. 

BY 

Maturin  M.  Ballou. 

Maturin  M.  Ballou  was  the  son  of  Hosea  Ballou  the  younger,  and 
came  of  a  distinguished  line  of  Universalist  clergymen.  He  was  born 
in  1820  and  died  in  1895.  For  several  years  he  edited  the  Boston 
Daily  Globe.  He  was  the  author  of  u  Due  West,”  u  Due  South,”  u  The 
New  El  Dorado,”  etc. 

COLUMBUS  first  named  Cuba  “  Juana,”  in  honor 
of  Prince  John,  son  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
Subsequently  the  king  named  it  Fernandina. 
This  was  changed  to  Santiago,  and  finally  to  Ave  Maria; 
but  the  aboriginal  designation  has  never  been  lost,  Cuba 
being  its  Indian  and  only  recognized  name.  The  newcom¬ 
ers  found  the  land  inhabited  by  a  most  peculiar  race,  hos¬ 
pitable,  inoffensive,  timid,  fond  of  the  dance  and  the  rude 
music  of  their  own  people,  yet  naturally  indolent,  from 
the  character  of  the  climate  they  inhabited.  They  had 
some  definite  idea  of  God  and  heaven,  and  were  governed 
by  patriarchs  or  kings,  whose  word  was  their  only  law, 
and  whose  age  gave  them  undisputed  precedence.  They 

From  “  Due  South,  or  Cuba,  Past  and  Present.”  Copyright  by  Maturin 

M.  Ballou.  By  permission. 


66 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


spoke  tlie  dialect  of  the  Lucayos,  or  Bahamas,  from  which 
islands  it  is  presumed  by  historians  they  originated ;  but 
it  would  seem  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  both  the 
people  of  the  Bahamas  and  of  the  West  India  isles  came 
originally  from  the  mainland;  that  is,  either  north  or 
south  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  In  numbers  they  were 
vaguely  estimated  at  a  million,  a  calculation  the  correct¬ 
ness  of  which  we  cannot  but  doubt.  Reliable  local  author¬ 
ity,  Cubans  who  have  made  a  study  of  the  early  history 
of  the  island,  assured  the  author  that  the  aborigines  at 
the  time  of  Velasquez’s  first  settlement,  say  in  1512,  could 
not  have  exceeded  four  hundred  thousand.  They  had  but 
few  weapons  of  offense  or  defense,  and  knew  not  the  use 
of  the  bow  and  arrow.  Bemg  a  peaceful  race  and  having 
no  wild  animals  to  contend  with,  their  ingenuity  had  never 
been  taxed  to  invent  weapons  of  warfare  against  man  or 
beast.  The  natives  were  at  once  subjected  by  the  new¬ 
comers,  who  reduced  them  gradually  to  an  actual  state  of 
slavery,  and  proving  hard  task-masters,  the  poor  over¬ 
worked  creatures  died  by  hundreds,  until  they  had  nearly 
disappeared.  The  home  government  then  granted  per¬ 
mission  to  import  negroes  from  the  coast  of  Africa  to 
labor  upon  the  soil  and  seek  for  gold,  which  was  known  to 
exist  in  the  river  courses.  Thus  commenced  the  foreign 
slave-trade  of  the  West  Indies,  King  Ferdinand  himself 
sending  fifty  slaves  from  Seville  to  labor  in  the  mines,  and 
until  a  recent  period  this  plague  spot  upon  humanity  fes¬ 
tered  on  the  island.  It  should  be  remembered  in  this  con¬ 
nection  that  previous  to  the  discoveries  of  Columbus,  ne¬ 
gro  slavery  had  been  reduced  to  a  system  by  the  Moors, 
and  thus  existed  in  Spain  before  the  days  of  the  great 
Genoese. 

The  Spaniards  were  not  content  with  putting  the  abo¬ 
rigines  to  labor  far  beyond  their  power  of  endurance  on 
the  soil  where  they  were  born,  but  shipped  them  by  hun¬ 
dreds  to  Spain  to  be  sold  in  the  slave-market  of  Seville, 
the  proceeds  being  turned  into  the  royal  treasury.  Co¬ 
lumbus  himself  was  the  promoter  of  this  outrageous  re¬ 
turn  for  the  hospitality  he  had  received  at  the  hands  of 


Copyright  1904  by  Detroit  Pub.  Co, 


A  STREET  SCENE  IN  CUBA 

FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH 

The  vegetation  and  architecture  alike  indicate  here 
tropical  conditions.  More  curious  still  is  the  remarkable  large, 
heavy  carriage  with  two  wheels  which  is  called  in  that 
country  a  “volante.”  The  driver  it  will  be  noticed  rides  pos¬ 
tilion,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  that  the  name  of 
the  carriage  and  its  driver  comes  from  the  root  verb  which 
means  to  fly,  for  such  a  carriage  should  be  capable  of  being 
driven  at  a  very  high  rate  of  speed. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CUBA 


69 


the  natives.  Irving  apologetically  says  he  was  induced  to 
this  course  in  order  to  indemnify  the  sovereigns  of  Castile 
and  Leon  for  the  large  expense  his  expedition  had  been  to 
them.  The  fact  that  the  great  navigator  originated  the 
slave-trade  in  the  New  World  cannot  be  ignored,  though 
it  detracts  in  no  small  degree  from  the  glory  of  his 
career. 

Although  the  conquerors  have  left  us  but  few  details 
respecting  these  aborigines,  still  we  know  with  certainty 
from  the  narrative  of  Columbus,  and  those  of  some  of  his 
most  intelligent  followers,  that  they  were  docile,  artless, 
generous, but  inclined  to  ease ;  that  they  were  well-formed, 
grave,  and  far  from  possessing  the  vivacity  of  the  natives 
of  the  south  of  Europe.  They  expressed  themselves  with 
a  certain  modesty  and  respect,  and  were  hospitable  to  the 
last  degree.  Reading  between  the  lines  of  the  records  of 
historv,  it  is  manifest  that  after  their  own  rules  and  es- 
timates,  their  lives  were  chaste  and  proper,  though  it  was 
admissible  for  kings  to  have  several  wives.  Moreover, 
.  .  .  they  religiously  observed  the  decencies  of  life,  and 
were  more  outraged  by  Spanish  wickedness  than  can  be 
clearly  expressed.  This  .  .  .  together  with  the  greed  for 
gold  exhibited  by  the  new-comers,  disabused  the  minds  of 
the  natives  as  to  the  celestial  origin  of  their  visitors,  a 
belief  which  they  at  first  entertained,  and  which  the  Span¬ 
iards  for  mercenary  purposes  strove  to  impress  upon 
them.  The  labor  of  this  people  was  limited  to  the  light 
work  necessary  to  provide  for  the  prime  wants  of  life,  be¬ 
yond  which  they  knew  nothing,  while  the  bounteous  cli¬ 
mate  of  the  tropics  spared  the  necessity  of  clothing.  They 
preferred  hunting  and  fishing  to  agriculture;  beans  and 
maize,  with  the  fruits  that  nature  gave  them  in  abundance, 
rendered  their  diet  at  once  simple,  nutritious,  and  entirely 
adequate  to  all  their  wants.  They  possessed  no  quadru¬ 
peds  of  any  description,  except  a  race  of  voiceless  dogs, 
as  they  were  designated  by  the  early  writers — why  we 
know  not,  since  they  bear  no  resemblance  to  the  canine 
species,  but  are  not  very  unlike  a  large  rat.  This  animal 

Vol.  IV  — 5 


70  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

is  trapped  and  eaten  by  the  people  on  the  island  to  this 
day,  having  much  of  the  flavor  and  nature  of  the  rabbit. 

The  native  Cubans  were  of  tawny  complexion  and 
beardless,  resembling  in  many  respects  the  aborigines  of 
North  America,  and  as  Columbus  described  them  in  his 
first  communication  to  his  royal  patrons,  were  “  loving, 
tractable  and  peaceable;  though  entirely  naked,  their 
manners  were  decorous  and  praiseworthy.’7  The  won¬ 
derful  fecundity  of  the  soil,  its  range  of  noble  mountains, 
its  widespread  and  well-watered  plains,  with  its  extended 
coast  line  and  excellent  harbors,  all  challenged  the  admir¬ 
ation  of  the  discoverers,  so  that  Columbus  recorded  in  his 
journal  these  words  :  “  It  is  the  most  beautiful  island 

that  eyes  ever  beheld— full  of  excellent  ports  and  pro¬ 
found  rivers.  ’  ’  And  again  he  says :  “  It  excels  all  other 

countries,  as  far  as  the  day  surpasses  the  night  in  bright¬ 
ness  and  splendor.  ’  ’  The  spot  where  the  Spaniards  first 
landed  is  supposed  to  be  on  the  east  coast,  just  west  of 
Nuevitas.  “  As  he  approached  the  island,”  says  Irving, 
1  ‘  he  was  struck  with  its  magnitude  and  the  grandeur  of 
its  features :  its  airy  mountains,  which  reminded  him  of 
Sicily;  its  fertile  valleys  and  long  sweeping  plains, 
watered  by  noble  rivers ;  its  stately  forests ;  its  bold  pro¬ 
montories  and  stretching  headlands,  which  melted  away 
into  remotest  distance.” 

Excursions  inland  corroborated  the  favorable  impres¬ 
sion  made  by  the  country  bordering  upon  the  coast.  The 
abundance  of  yams,  Indian  corn,  and  various  fruits,  to¬ 
gether  with  the  plentifulness  of  wild  cotton,  impressed  the 
explorers  most  favorably.  Their  avarice  and  greed  were 
also  stimulated  by  the  belief  that  gold  was  to  be  found  in 
large  quantities,  having  received  enough  to  convince  them 
of  its  actual  presence  in  the  soil,  but  in  the  supposition 
that  the  precious  metal  was  to  be  found  in  what  is  termed 
paying  quantities  they  were  mistaken. 

The  Spaniards  were  not  a  little  surprised  to  see  the 
natives  using  rude  pipes,  in  which  they  smoked  a  certain 
dried  leaf  with  apparent  gratification.  Tobacco  was  in¬ 
digenous,  and  in  the  use  of  this  now  universal  narcotic, 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CUBA 


71 


these  simple  savages  indulged  in  at  least  one  luxury.  The 
flora  was  strongly  individualized.  The  frangipani,  tall 
and  almost  leafless,  with  thick  fleshy  shoots,  decked  with 
a  small  white  blossom,  was  very  fragrant  and  abundant  ; 
here  also  was  the  wild  passion  flower,  in  which  the  Span¬ 
iards  thought  they  beheld  the  emblems  of  our  Saviour’s 
passion.  The  golden-hued  peta  was  found  beside  the 
myriad— flowering  oleander,  while  the  undergrowth  was 
braided  with  cacti  and  aloes.  The  poisonous  mancliineel 
was  observed,  a  drop  of  whose  milky  juice  will  burn  the 
flesh  like  vitriol.  Here  the  invaders  also  observed  and 
noted  the  night-blooming  cereus.  They  were  delighted 
by  fruits  of  which  they  knew  not  the  names,  such  as  the 
custard-apple,  mango,  zapota,  banana,  and  others,  grow¬ 
ing  in  such  rank  luxuriance  as  to  seem  miraculous.  We 
can  well  conceive  of  the  pleasure  and  surprise  of  these  ad¬ 
venturous  strangers,  when  first  partaking  of  these  new 
and  delicate  products.  This  was  four  hundred  years  ago, 
and  to-day  the  same  flora  and  the  same  luscious  food  grow 
there  in  similar  abundance.  Nature  in  this  land  of  cease¬ 
less  summer  puts  forth  strange  eagerness,  ever  running 
to  fruits,  flowers,  and  fragrance,  as  if  they  were  outlets 

for  her  exuberant  fecunditv. 

%> 

The  inoffensive,  unsuspicious  natives  shared  freely 
everything  they  possessed  with  the  invaders.  Hospital¬ 
ity  was  with  them  an  instinct,  fostered  by  nature  all  about 
them ;  besides  which  it  was  a  considerable  time  before  they 
ceased  to  believe  their  guests  superior  beings  descended 
from  the  clouds  in  the  winged  vessels.  The  Indians  lived 
in  villages  of  two  or  three  hundred  houses,  built  of  wood 
and  palm-leaf,  each  dwelling  containing  several  families, 
the  whole  of  one  lineage,  and  all  were  governed  by  ca¬ 
ciques  or  kings,  the  spirit  of  the  government  being  patri¬ 
archal. 

We  are  told  by  Las  Casas,  who  accompanied  Velasquez 
in  all  his  expeditions,  that  “  their  dances  were  graceful 
and  their  singing  melodious,  while  with  primeval  inno¬ 
cence  they  thought  no  harm  of  being  clad  only  with  na¬ 
ture’s  covering. The  description  of  the  gorgeous  hos- 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


pitality  extended  to  these  treacherous  invaders  is  abso¬ 
lutely  touching  in  the  light  of  our  subsequent  knowledge. 
They  reared  no  sacred  temples,  nor  did  they  seem  to  wor¬ 
ship  idols,  and  yet  some  few  antiquities  have  been  pre¬ 
served  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  natives  pos¬ 
sessed  grotesque  images,  half  human  and  half  animal, 
like  Chinese  gods  in  effect.  These  were  wrought  so  rude¬ 
ly  out  of  stone  as  hardly  to  convey  any  fixed  idea;  vague 
and  imperfect,  it  is  not  safe  to  define  them  as  idolatrous 
images.  They  might  have  been  left  here  by  a  previous 
race,  for,  as  we  are  all  aware,  respectable  authorities  hold 
that  this  part  of  the  world  was  originally  peopled  by  Car¬ 
thaginians,  Israelites,  Egyptians,  Hindoos,  and  Africans. 
Columbus,  in  his  second  voyage  to  the  West  Indies,  found 
the  stern-post  of  a  vessel  lying  on  the  shore  of  one  of 
the  Leeward  isles,  which  was  strongly  presumptive  evi¬ 
dence  that  a  European  ship  had  been  in  these  waters  be¬ 
fore  him.  The  fact  that  at  the  time  of  this  writing,  there 
still  lies  in  the  harbor  of  Santiago  the  wreck  of  the 
old  St.  Paul,  which  must  be  over  three  centuries  old, 
shows  how  long  a  piece  of  marine  architecture  may  last, 
submerged  in  salt  water. 

An  idol  similar  to  those  referred  to  was  dug  up  in 
Hayti,  and  is  now  believed  to  be  in  the  British  Museum, 
drawings  of  which  the  author  has  seen,  and  which  re¬ 
semble  original  religious  emblems  examined  by  him  in 
the  caves  of  Elephanta,  at  Bombay.  This  emblem,  carved 
by  a  people  unacquainted  with  the  use  of  edge  tools,  is  be¬ 
lieved  by  antiquarians  to  afford  a  degree  of  light  as  to  the 
history  of  worship  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Hispa¬ 
niola,  and  also  to  form  a  collateral  support  of  the  conjec¬ 
ture  that  they  sprang  from  the  parent  stock  of  Asia.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  Las  Casas,  the  native  Cubans  had  a  vague  tra¬ 
dition  of  the  formation  of  the  earth,  and  of  all  created 
things ;  of  the  deluge,  of  the  ark,  the  raven,  and  the  dove. 
They  knew  the  tradition  of  Noah  also,  according  to  the 
same  high  authority,  but  for  our  own  part  we  do  not  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  aborigines  had  any  knowledge  of  this  Bibli¬ 
cal  history.  Their  priests  were  fanatics  and  kept  the 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CUBA 


73 


people  in  fear  by  gross  and  extravagant  means ;  but  as  to 
any  formulated  system  of  religious  worship,  it  may  be 
doubted  if  the  aborigines  of  Cuba  recognized  any  at  the 
time  of  its  discovery  by  Columbus. 

Unbroken  peace  reigned  among  them,  and  they  turned 
their  hands  against  no  other  people. 

These  aborigines  evinced  many  of  the  traits  universally 
evinced  by  the  savage  races,  such  as  painting  their  bodies 
with  red  earth  and  adorning  their  heads  with  the  feathers 
of  brilliant  birds.  Much  of  the  soil  is  red,  almost  equal  to 
a  pigment,  for  which  purpose  it  was  employed  by  the  na¬ 
tives.  They  lived  mostly  in  the  open  air,  weaving  them¬ 
selves  hammocks  in  which  they  slept,  suspended  among 
the  trees.  The  cotton  which  they  spun  grew  wild,  but  to¬ 
bacco  they  planted  and  cultivated  after  a  rude  fashion. 
The  iguana  and  the  voiceless  dog,  already  spoken  of, 
were  hunted  and  eaten,  the  former  of  the  lizard  family, 
the  latter  scarcely  more  than  fifteen  inches  long.  They 
had  domestic  birds  which  they  fattened  and  ate.  Their 
only  arms  were  lances  tipped  with  sea-shells,  and  a  sort  of 
wooden  sword,  both  of  which  were  more  for  display  than 
for  use.  Fish  they  caught  in  nets  and  also  with  hooks 
made  of  bones.  Their  boats,  or  canoes,  were  formed  of 
the  dug-out  trunks  of  trees,  and  some  of  these  canoes,  as 
Columbus  tells  us,  were  sufficiently  large  to  accommodate 
fifty  men.  An  ancient  writer  upon  this  subject  says  the 
oars  were  well  formed  and  properly  fitted,  but  were  used 
only  with  the  power  of  the  arms,  that  is  as  paddles,  no 
rowlocks  being  cut  in  the  boat.  The  speed  attained  by 
them  was  remarkable,  reaching  four  leagues  an  hour  when 
an  effort  to  that  end  was  made  by  the  occupants.  A  large 
canoe,  made  from  the  straight  trunk  of  a  mahogany  tree, 
is  described  as  having  been  five  feet  in  width  and  seventy- 
five  feet  long.  This  craft  was  propelled  by  twenty-five 
oarsmen  on  each  side-,  a  steersman  in  the  stem  and  a 
lookout  at  the  prow.  This  was  a  cacique ’s  barge,  in  which 
he  made  visits  of  state  along  shore  and  up  the  rivers. 

History  has  preserved  a  remarkable  and  characteristic 
speech  made  by  a  venerable  cacique,  who  approached  Co- 


74  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

lumbus  with  great  reverence  on  the  occasion  of  his  sec¬ 
ond  visit  to  Cuba,  and  who,  after  presenting  him  with  a 
basket  of  ripe  fruit,  said :  4  ‘  Whether  you  are  divinities 

or  mortal  men,  we  know  not.  You  have  come  into  these 
countries  with  a  force,  against  which,  were  we  inclined  to 
resist,  it  would  be  folly.  We  are  all  therefore  at  your 
mercy;  but  if  you  are  men,  subject  to  mortality  like  our¬ 
selves,  you  cannot  be  unapprised  that  after  this  life  there 
is  another,  wherein  a  very  different  portion  is  allotted  to 
good  and  bad  men.  If  therefore  you  expect  to  die,  and 
believe,  with  us,  that  every  one  is  to  be  rewarded  in  a  fu¬ 
ture  state  according  to  his  conduct  in  the  present,  you  will 
do  no  hurt  to  those  who  do  none  to  you.”  This  was  duly 
interpreted  to  Columbus  by  a  native  whom  he  had  taken 
to  Spain,  and  who  had  there  acquired  the  Spanish  lan¬ 
guage.  His  name  was  Didacus,  and  the  date  of  the  speech 
was  July  7,  1494.  The  truth  of  this  version  is  attested  by 
Herrera  and  others. 

The  reception  which  Bartholomew  Columbus,  who  was 
appointed  Deputy  Governor  in  the  absence  of  the  Ad¬ 
miral,  afterwards  met  with  in  his  progress  through  the 
island  to  collect  tribute  from  the  several  caciques  mani¬ 
fested  not  onlv  kindness  and  submission,  but  also  munifi- 
cence.  Having  heard  of  the  eagerness  of  the  strangers 
for  gold,  such  of  them  as  possessed  any  brought  it  forth 
and  freely  bestowed  it  upon  the  Spaniards.  Those  who 
had  not  gold  brought  abundance  of  cotton.  One  cacique 
in  the  interior,  named  Behechio,  invited  the  Deputy  Gov¬ 
ernor  to  a  state  entertainment,  on  which  occasion  he  was 
received  with  great  ceremony.  As  he  approached  the 
king’s  dwelling,  the  royal  wives,  thirty  in  number,  carry¬ 
ing  branches  of  palms  in  their  hands,  came  forth  to  greet 
the  guest  with  song  and  dance.  These  matrons  were  suc¬ 
ceeded  by  a  train  of  virgins.  The  first  wore  aprons  of 
cotton,  the  last  were  arrayed  only  in  the  innocence  of  their 
nature,  their  hair  flowing  long  and  freely  about  their 
shoulders  and  necks.  Their  limbs  were  finely  propor¬ 
tioned,  and  their  complexions,  though  brown,  were 
smooth,  shining  and  lovely.  The  Spaniards  were  struck 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  CUBA 


75 


with  admiration,  believing  that  they  beheld  the  dryads  of 
the  woods  and  the  nymphs  of  the  ancient  fables.  The 
branches  which  they  bore  were  delivered  to  the  strangers 
with  a  low  obeisance,  indicating  entire  submission.  When 
the  Spaniards  entered  the  rural  palace,  amid  songs  and 
the  rude  music  of  the  people,  they  found  there  a  plentiful 
and,  according  to  the  Indian  mode  of  living,  a  sumptuous 
banquet  prepared  for  them. 

After  the  repast  the  guests  were  each  conducted  to  sep¬ 
arate  lodgings,  and  each  provided  with  a  cotton  hammock. 
On  the  next  day  feasting  and  games  were  resumed ;  danc¬ 
ing  and  singing  closed  each  evening  for  four  consecutive 
days,  and  when  the  Deputy  Governor  and  his  people  de¬ 
parted,  they  were  laden  with  gifts  by  their  generous  en¬ 
tertainers,  who  also  accompanied  them  far  on  their  way. 
This  episode  will  perhaps  serve  better  to  give  us  a  just  in¬ 
sight  into  the  condition  and  character  of  the  aborigines 
of  Cuba  at  that  early  period  than  any  amount  of  detailed 
description  possibly  could. 

These  aborigines,  according  to  Las  Casas,  had  no  tra¬ 
dition  even,  touching  their  own  origin,  and  when  asked 
about  it  only  shook  their  heads  and  pointed  to  the  sky. 
Antiquarians  have  endeavored  to  draw  some  reliable  or 
at  least  reasonable  deductions  from  the  collections  of 
bones  and  skeletons  found  in  the  mountain  caves  of  the 
island,  but  no  conclusion  worthy  of  record  has  ever  been 
arrived  at.  Still,  upon  these  evidences  some  scientists 
pin  their  faith  that  Cuba  was  a  portion  of  the  primitive 
world.  Speaking  of  these  caves,  there  are  many  subter¬ 
ranean  openings  on  the  island,  down  which  rivers  of  con¬ 
siderable  size  abruptly  disappear,  not  again  to  be  met 
with,  though  it  is  reasonably  presumed  that  they  find  their 
way  through  the  rocks  and  soil  to  the  sea-coast. 

During  the  ten  years  subsequent  to  its  discovery,  Co¬ 
lumbus  visited  and  partially  explored  the  island  at  four 
different  times,  the  last  being  in  1502,  four  years  previous 
to  his  death,  which  took  place  at  Valladolid  in  1506.  It 
seems  singular  to  us  that  his  investigations  left  him  still 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  Cuba  was  an  island,  and  not  a 


76 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


part  of  a  new  continent.  Tliis  conviction  remained  with 
him  during  his  lifetime.  It  was  not  until  1511  that  the 
Spaniards  commenced  to  colonize  the  island,  when  Diego 
Columbus,  then  Governor  of  San  Domingo,  sent  an  expe¬ 
dition  of  three  hundred  men  for  the  purpose,  under  the 
command  of  Diego  Velasquez,  whose  landing  was  dis¬ 
puted  by  the  natives.  A  period  of  ten  years  had  served 
to  open  their  eyes  to  Spanish  lust  and  love  of  gold,  and 
from  having  at  first  regarded  them  as  superior  beings,  en¬ 
titled  to  their  obedience,  they  were  finally  thus  driven  to 
fight  them  in  self-defense.  But  what  could  naked  sav¬ 
ages,  armed  only  with  clubs  and  spears,  accomplish 
against  Europeans,  trained  soldiers,  furnished  with  fire¬ 
arms,  protected  by  plate  armor,  and  accompanied  by 
bloodhounds— men  who  had  learned  the  art  of  war  by 
fighting  successfully  with  the  valiant  Moors?  The  na¬ 
tives  were  at  once  overpowered  and  hundreds  were 
slaughtered.  From  that  time  forth  they  became  the 
slaves  of  their  conquerors ;  a  fact  which  reconciles  us  in 
some  degree  in  the  light  of  poetical  justice  to  the  fact  that 
Amerigo  Vespucci,  who  followed  in  the  footsteps  of 
others,  yet  took  the  honors  of  discovery  so  far  as  to  give 
his  name  to  the  largest  quarter  of  the  globe. 


FIRST  SIGHT  OF  THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAINS. 


BY 

Sir  William  Francis  Butler. 

Major-General  Sir  W.  F.  Butler,  K.  C.  B.,  served  witli  distinction 
on  the  Red  River  expedition,  and  acted  as  special  commissioner  to 
the  Saskatchewan  Territories  in  1870  and  1871.  While  in  command 
of  the  West  African  native  forces  during  the  Ashantee  war,  he  was 
honorably  mentioned  in  several  dispatches  of  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley. 
In  1874  he  received  the  order  of  Companion  of  the  Bath.  In  1877 
he  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Thompson,  the  famous  painter  of  u  The 
Roll  Call,”  etc.  He  also  served  in  the  Zulu  war,  and  the  Egyptian 
campaigns  of  1882,  1884-1885. 

While  in  North  America  he  collected  materials  for  his  two  well-known 
works,  “  The  Great  Lone  Land  ”  and  “  The  Wild  North  Land.”  He  has 
written  several  other  books  of  travel. 

IT  was  near  sunset  when  we  rode  by  the  lonely  shores 

of  the  Gull  Lake,  whose  frozen  surface  stretched 

beyond  the  horizon  to  the  north.  Before  ns,  at  a 

distance  of  some  ten  miles,  lay  the  abrupt  line  of  the 

Three  Medicine  Hills,  from  whose  gorges  the  first  view  of 

the  great  range  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  was  destined  to 

burst  upon  my  sight.  But  not  on  this  day  was  I  to  behold 

that  long-looked-for  vision.  Night  came  quickly  down 

upon  the  silent  wilderness;  and  it  was  long  after  dark 

wdien  we  made  our  camps  by  the  bank  of  the  Pas-co-pee, 

or  Blindman’s  River,  and  turned  adrift  the  weary  horses 

to  graze  in  a  well-grassed  meadow  lying  in  one  of  the 

curves  of  the  river.  We  had  ridden  more  than  sixty 

miles  that  dav. 

*/ 

About  midnight  a  heavy  storm  of  snow  burst  upon  us, 
and  daybreak  revealed  the  whole  camp  buried  deep  in 
snow.  As  I  threw  back  the  blankets  from  my  head  (one 
always  lies  covered  up  completely),  the  wet,  cold  mass 
struck  chillily  upon  my  face.  The  snow  was  wet  and 
sticky,  and  therefore  things  were  much  more  wretched, 
than  if  the  temperature  had  been  lower;  but  the  hot  tea 

From  u  The  Great  Lone  Land.” 

77 


78 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


made  matters  seem  brighter,  and  about  breakfast-time 
the  snow  ceased  to  fall,  and  the  clouds  began  to  clear 
away.  Packing  our  wet  blankets  together,  we  set  out  for 
the  Three  Medicine  Hills,  through  whose  defiles  our 
course  lay;  the  snow  was  deep  in  the  narrow  valleys, 
making  traveling  slower  and  more  laborious  than  before. 
It  was  mid-day  when,  having  rounded  the  highest  of  the 
three  hills,  we  entered  a  narrow  gorge  fringed  with  a  fire- 
ravaged  forest.  This  gorge  wound  through  the  hills,  pre¬ 
venting  a  far-reaching  view  ahead;  but  at  length  its 
western  termination  was  reached,  and  there  lay  before 
me  a  sight  to  be  long  remembered. 

The  great  chain  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  rose  their 
snow-clad  sierras  in  endless  succession.  Climbing  one 
of  the  eminences,  I  gained  a  vantage-point  on  the  sum¬ 
mit  from  which  some  bygone  fire  had  swept  the  trees. 
Then,  looking  west,  I  beheld  the  great  range  in  unclouded 
glory.  The  snow  had  cleared  the  atmosphere,  the  sky  was 
coldly  bright.  An  immense  plain  stretched  from  my  feet 
to  the  mountain— a  plain  so  vast  that  every  object  of  hill 
and  wood  and  lake  lav  dwarfed  into  one  continuous  level, 
and  at  the  back  of  this  level,  beyond  the  pines  and  the 
lakes  and  the  river-courses,  rose  the  giant  range,  solid, 
impassable,  silent— a  mighty  barrier  rising  midst  an  im¬ 
mense  land,  standing  sentinel  over  the  plains  and  prairies 
of  America,  over  the  measureless  solitudes  of  this  Great 
Lone  Land.  Here  at  last  lay  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

Leaving  behind  the  Medicine  Hills,  we  descended  into 
the  plain  and  held  our  way  until  sunset  toward  the  west. 
It  was  a  calm  and  beautiful  evening;  far-away  objects 
stood  out  sharp  and  distinct  in  the  pure  atmosphere  of 
these  elevated  regions.  For  some  hours  we  had  lost  sight 
of  the  mountains,  but  shortly  before  sunset  the  summit 
of  a  long  ridge  was  gained,  and  they  burst  suddenly  into 
view  in  greater  magnificence  than  at  mid-day.  Telling 
my  men  to  go  on  and  make  the  camp  at  the  Medicine  river, 
I  rode  through  some  firewasted  forest  to  a  lofty  grass- 
covered  height  which  the  declining  sun  was  bathing  in 
floods  of  glory. 


?&? 

s!3 


m 


m 


PIKE’S  PEAK  RAILWAY 

Lieut.  Zebulon  M.  Pike  was  sent  in  1805  to  notify  the 
Louisiana  purchase  to  all  the  people  in  that  section.  Here 
he  discovered,  but  did  not  ascend,  the  famous  peak  in  the 
Rockies,  nearly  1,500  feet  high,  which  bears  his  name.  Its 
summit  was  first  reached  in  1858  by  G.  F.  Ruxton.  Now  a 
railroad  reaches  it — as  shown. 


>3$ 


W 


W 


FIRST  SIGHT  OF  THE  ROCKY  MOUNTAINS  81 

I  cannot  hope  to  put  into  the  compass  of  words  the 
scene  which  lay  rolled  beneath  from  this  sunset-lighted 
eminence;  for  as  I  looked  over  the  immense  plain  and 
watched  the  slow  descent  of  the  evening  sun  upon  the 
frosted  crest  of  these  lone  mountains,  it  seemed  as  if  the 
varied  scenes  of  my  long  journey  had  woven  themselves 
into  the  landscape,  filling  with  the  music  of  memory  the 
earth,  the  sky,  and  the  mighty  panorama  of  mountains. 
Here  at  length  lay  the  barrier  to  my  onward  wanderings, 
here  lay  the  bound  to  that  4,000  miles  of  unceasing  travel 
which  had  carried  me  by  so  many  varied  scenes  so  far 
into  the  lone  lands ;  and  other  thoughts  were  not  wanting. 
The  peaks  on  which  I  gazed  were  no  pigmies ;  they  stood 
the  culminating  monarclis  of  the  mighty  range  of  the 
Rocky  mountains.  From  the  estuary  of  the  Mackenzie  to 
the  Lake  of  Mexico  no  point  of  the  American  continent 
reaches  higher  to  the  skies.  That  eternal  crust  of  snow 
seeks  in  summer  widely  severed  oceans. 

The  Mackenzie,  the  Columbia,  and  the  Saskatchewan 
spring  from  the  peaks  whose  teeth-like  summits  lie 
grouped  from  this  spot  into  the  compass  of  a  single 
glance.  The  clouds  that  cast  their  moisture  upon  this 
long  line  of  uplieaven  rocks  seek  again  the  ocean  which 
gave  them  birth  in  its  far-separated  divisions  of  Atlantic, 
Pacific,  and  Arctic.  The  sun  sank  slowly  behind  the 
range,  and  darkness  began  to  fall  on  the  immense  plain, 
but  aloft  on  the  topmost  edge  the  pure  white  of  the  jagged 
crest-line  glowed  for  an  instant  in  many  colored  silver, 
and  then  the  lonely  peaks  grew  dark  and  dim. 

As  thus  I  watched  from  the  silent  hill-top  this  great 
mountain-chain,  whose  summits  slept  in  the  glory  of  the 
sunset,  it  seemed  no  stretch  of  fancy  which  made  the  red 
man  place  his  paradise  beyond  their  golden  peaks.  The 
“  Mountains  of  the  Setting  Sun,’7  the  “  Bridge  of  the 
World,”  thus  he  has  named  them,  and  beyond  them  the 
soul  first  catches  a  glimpse  of  that  mystical  land  where 
the  tents  are  pitched  midst  everlasting  verdure  and 
countless  herds  and  the  music  of  ceaseless  streams. 


TOLTEC  GOBGE. 


BY 


Ernest  Ingersoll. 

Ernest  Ingersoll  was  born  in  Michigan  in  1852  and  spent  his  youth 
and  early  manhood  in  studying  natural  history  in  Oberiin  College 
and  Harvard  University.  Besides  his  many  works  on  this  subject  he 
has  written  several  capital  stories  for  young  folks  which  are  great 
favorites  with  them. 


Toltec  Gorge  is  one  of  the  many  marvels  of  the  Rocky  mountains 
region;  on  the  border  line  of  Colorado  and  New  Mexico  it  is  between 
Antonito  in  the  former  and  Chama  in  the  latter.  The  whole  country 
abounds  in  Natural  wonders  to  which  human  tongue  or  pen  ever  fail 
to  do  complete  justice.  A  very  vivid  impression  of  one  of  them  is 
however  conveyed  by  the  following  eloquent  description ;  — 


IT1  look  no  more; 

Lest  my  brain  turn,  and  the  deficient  sight 
Topple  down  headlong.  —  King  Lear. 


HAVING  at  last  turned  our  lieels  reluctantly  on  tlie 
simple-hearted,  prettily-checkered  life  of  the 
Pueblos,  we  raced  back  in  a  single  night  to  the 
plains  of  San  Luis.  A  long  line  of  telegraph  poles 
stretches  out  from  Antonio  into  a  true  vanishing  point 
across  the  park,  and  the  train  follows  it  San  Juanward. 
The  noble  Sangre  de  Cristo  looms  up  higher  and  higher 
behind  us  as  we  proceed,  a  mirage  lifting  the  line  of  cot¬ 
tonwoods  along  the  Bio  Grande  into  impossibly  tall  and 
spindling  caricatures  of  trees ;  while  the  Jemez  mountains 
away  to  the  south  are  not  yet  lost  to  view,  and  the  strik¬ 
ing  landmark  of  Mount  San  Antonio,  smooth  and  round, 
is  close  at  hand.  A  few  miles  beyond  it  the  arid  level 
of  the  lake-spread  plain  breaks  into  white,  stony  emin¬ 
ences,  reared  in  a  bold  front.  To  surmount  these  the 
track  is  arranged  in  long,  ingenious  loops,  in  one  place, 
known  as  the  ‘  ‘  Whiplash,  ’  *  extending  into  three  parallel 
lines,  scarcely  a  stone’s  throw  apart,  but  disposed  terrace- 
like  on  the  hillside.  On  top  of  the  mesa  the  sage-brush 


From  u  The  Crest  of  tlie  Continent.”  Copyright  by  S.  K.  Hooper. 

By  permission. 


82 


TOLTEC  GORGE 


83 


disappears,  grass,  piilons  and  yellow  pines  taking  its 
place,  and  we  begin  to  wind  among  the  long,  straight  lava 
ridges  at  the  foot  of  the  divide  between  the  Los  Pinos  and 
the  Chama,  whence  the  backward  view  is  remarkably  tine. 
The  road  here  is  like  a  goat’s  path  in  its  vagaries,  and 
wagers  are  made  as  to  the  point  of  the  compass  to  be 
aimed  at  five  minutes  in  advance,  or  whether  the  track 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  crevasse  is  the  one  we  have 
just  come  over,  or  are  now  about  to  pursue. 

Describing  a  number  of  large  curves  around  constantly 
deepening  depressions,  we  reached  the  breast  of  a  moun¬ 
tain,  whence  we  obtained  our  first  glimpse  into  Los  Pinos 
valley;  and  it  came  like  a  sudden  revelation  of  beauty 
and  grandeur.  The  approach  had  been  picturesque  and 
gentle  in  character.  Now  we  found  our  train  clinging  to 
a  narrow  pathway  carved  out  far  up  the  mountain’s  side, 
while  great  masses  of  a  volcanic  conglomerate  towered 
overhead,  and  the  face  of  the  opposing  heights  broke  off 
into  bristling  crags.  The  river  sank  deeper  and  deeper 
into  the  narrowing  vale,  and  the  space  beneath  us  to  its 
banks  was  excitingly  precipitous.  We  crowded  upon  the 
platform,  the  outer  step  of  which  sometimes  hung  over  an 
abyss  that  made  us  shudder,  till  some  friendly  bank 
placed  itself  between  us  and  the  almost  unbroken  descent. 
But  we  learned  to  enjoy  the  imminent  edge,  along  which 
the  train  crept  so  cautiously,  and  begrudged  every  instant 
that  the  landscape  was  shut  out  by  intervening  objects. 

To  say  that  the  vision  here  is  grand,  awe-inspiring, 
painfully  impressive  or  memorable,  falls  short  of  the 
truth  in  each  case.  It  is  too  much  to  take  in  at  once,  and 
we  are  glad  to  pause  again  for  a  little  brain-rest  at  a 
telegraph  station,  hung  almost  like  a  bird’s  nest  among 
the  rocks — to  grow  used  by  degrees  to  the  stupendous 
picture  spread  before  us.  We  were  so  high  that  not  only 
the  bottom  of  the  valley,  where  the  silver  ribbon  of  the 
Los  Pinos  trailed  in  and  out  among  the  trees,  and  under¬ 
neath  the  headlands,  but  even  the  wooded  tops  of  the 
further  rounded  hills  were  below  us,  and  we  could  count 
the  dim,  distant  peaks  in  New  Mexico. 


84 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Six  miles  ahead  lay  the  canon  of  which  we  had  heard  so 
much— the  Toltec  Gorge,  whose  praises  could  not  be  over¬ 
drawn.  Evidently  his  majesty  had  entrenched  himself  in 
glories  beside  which  any  ordinary  monarch  would  lose 
his  magnificence.  Was  this  king  of  canons  really  so  great 
he  could  afford  to  risk  all  rivalry?  Here,  on  the  left,  what 
noble  martello-tower  of  native  lava  is  that  which  stands 
undizzied  on  the  very  brink  of  the  precipice?  I  should 
like  to  roll  it  off,  and  watch  it  cut  a  swath  through  that 
puny  forest  down  there,  and  dam  up  the  whole  stream 
wfith  its  huge  breadth.  How  these  passages  of  spongy 
rock  resound  as  our  engine  drags  the  long  train  we  have 
again  mounted  through  their  lofty  portals !  How  narrow 
apparently  are  these  curved  and  smooth  embankments 
that  carry  us  across  the  ravines,  and  how  spidery  look  the 
firmly-braced  bridges  that  span  the  torrents !  All  the 
way  the  road-bed  is  heaped  up  or  dug  out  artificially.  It 
is  merely  a  shelf  near  the  summit.  It  hugs  the  wall  like  a 
chamois-stalker,  creeping  stealthily  out  to  the  end  of  and 
around  each  projecting  spur;  it  explores  every  in-bending 
gulch,  boldly  strides  across  the  water-channels,  and  walks 
undismayed  upon  the  utmost  verge,  where  rough  cliffs 
overhang  it,  and  the  gulf  sinks  away  hundreds  of  feet 
beneath. 

In  the  most  secluded  nook  of  the  mountains  we  come 
upon  Phantom  Curve,  with  its  company  of  isolated  rocks, 
made  of  stuff  so  hard  as  to  have  stood  upright,  tall,  gro¬ 
tesque,  and  sunburned,  beside  the  pigmy  firs  and  cowering 
boulders  with  which  they  are  surrounded.  Miles  away 
you  can  trace  these  black  pinnacles,  like  sentinels,  mid¬ 
way  up  the  slopes ;  but  here  at  hand  they  fill  the  eye,  and 
in  their  fantastic  resemblance  to  human  shapes  and  things 
we  know  in  miniature,  seem  to  us  crumbled  images  of  the 
days  when  there  were  giants,  and  men  of  Titanic  mold  set 
up  mementoes  of  their  brawny  heroes — 

u  Achaian  statues  in  a  world  so  rich !  ” 

Phantoms ,  they  are  called,  and  the  statuesque  shadows 
they  cast,  moving  mysteriously  along  the  white  bluffs,  as 


TOLTEC  gorge 


85 


the  sun  declines,  are  uncanny  and  ghost-like,  perhaps;  hut 
the  brown,  rough,  grandly  grouping  monoliths  of  lava 
themselves,  are  no  more  phantoms  than  are  the  pyramids 
of  Sahara,  and  beside  them  the  Theban  monuments  of  the 
mighty  Kameses  would  sink  into  insignificance. 

Winding  along  the  slender  track,  among  these  solemn 
forms,  we  approach  the  gorge,  the  vastly  seamed  and 
wrinkled  face  of  whose  opposite  wall  confronts  us  under 
the  frown  of  an  intense  shade— unused  to  the  light  from 
all  eternity;  but  on  this,  the  sunny  side,  a  rosy  pile,  lifts 
its  massive  head  proudly  far  above  us,  its  square,  fearless 
forehead— 

u  Fronting  heaven’s  splendor, 

Strong  and  full  and  clear.” 


How  should  we  pass  it?  On  the  right  stood  the  solid 
palisade  of  the  Sierras,  rising  unbroken  to  the  ultimate 
heights;  on  the  left  the  gulf,  its  sides  more  and  more 
nearlv  vertical,  more  and  more  terrible  in  their  armature 
of  splintered  ledges  and  pike-pointed  tree-tops — more 
often  breaking  away  into  perpendicular  cliffs,  whence  we 
could  hurl  a  pebble,  or  ourselves,  into  the  mad  torrent 
easily  seen  but  too  far  below  to  be  heard ;  and  as  we  drew 
nearer,  the  rosy  crags  rise  higher  and  more  distinct 
across  our  path.  We  turn  a  curve  in  the  track,  the  cars 
leaning  toward  the  inside,  as  if  they,  too,  retreated  from 
the  look  down  into  that  “  vasty  deep,”  and  lo !  a  gateway 
tunneled  through — the  barrier  is  conquered ! 

The  blank  of  the  tunnel  gives  one  time  to  think.  Pic¬ 
tures  of  the  beetling,  ebony-pillared  cliffs  linger  in  the 
retina  suddenly  deprived  of  the  reality,  and  reproduce  the 
seamed  and  jagged  rocks  in  fiery  similitude  upon  the 
darkness.  In  a  twinkling  the  impression  fades,  and  at 
the  same  instant  you  catch  a  gleam  of  advancing  light, 
and  dash  out  into  the  sunshine — into  the  sunshine  only? 
Oh,  no,  out  into  the  air— an  awful  leap  abroad  into  in¬ 
visibly  bounded  space;  and  you  catch  your  breath, 
startled  beyond  self-control ! 


86  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

Then  it  is  all  over,  and  yon  are  still  on  yonr  feet,  listen¬ 
ing  to  the  familiar  ring  of  the  brown  walls  as  they  fly 
past. 

What  was  it  you  saw  that  made  yonr  breathing  cease, 
and  the  blood  chill  in  yonr  heart  with  swift  terror!  It  is 
hard  to  remember;  but  there  remains  a  feeling  of  an  in¬ 
stant’s  suspension  over  an  irregular  chasm  that  seemed 
cut  to  the  very  center  of  the  earth,  and,  to  your  dilated 
eye,  gleamed  brightly  at  the  bottom,  as  though  it  pene¬ 
trated  even  the  realms  of  Pluto.  You  knew  it  opened  out¬ 
wardly  into  the  gorge,  for  there  in  front  stood  the  mighty 
wall,  bracing  the  mountain  far  overhead,  and  below 
flashed  the  foaming  river.  This  is  the  sum  of  your  recol¬ 
lection,  photographed  upon  your  brain  by  a  mental 
process  more  instantaneous  than  any  application  of  art, 
and  never  to  be  erased.  Gradually  you  conclude  that  the 
train  ran  directly  out  upon  a  short  trestle,  one  end  of 
which  rests  in  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel,  and  the  other  in 
the  jaws  of  a  rock  cutting.  This  is  the  fact;  but  the 
traveler  reasons  it  out,  for  he  cannot  see  the  support  be¬ 
neath  his  car,  which,  to  all  intents,  takes  a  flying  bound 
across  a  cleft  in  the  granite  eleven  hundred  measured  feet 
in  depth. 

Our  train  having  halted,  the  artist  sought  a  favorable 
position  for  obtaining  a  sketch  of  Toltec  gorge,  the  pho¬ 
tographer  became  similarly  absorbed,  and  the  remaining 
members  of  the  expedition  zealously  examined  a  spot 
whose  counterpart  in  rugged  and  inspiring  sublimity 
probably  does  not  exist  elsewhere  in  America.  A  few 
rods  up  the  canon  a  thin  and  ragged  pinnacle  rises 
abruptly  from  the  very  bottom  to  a  level  with  the  rail¬ 
way  track.  This  point  has  been  christened  Eva  cliff,  and 
when  we  had  gained  its  crest  by  dint  of  much  laborious 
and  hazardous  climbing  over  a  narrow  gangway  of  rocks, 
by  which  it  is  barely  connected  with  the  neighboring  bank, 
our  exertions  were  well  repaid  by  the  splendid  view  of 
the  gorge  it  afforded. 

Just  west  of  the  tunnel,  and  close  beside  the  track,  the 
rocks  have  been  broken  and  leveled  into  a  small  smooth 


TOLTEC  GORGE 


87 


space,  and  here ,  on  the  26th  of  September,  1881,  that 
gloomiest  day  in  the  decade  for  our  people,  were  cele¬ 
brated  as  impressive  memorial  services  for  Garfield,  the 
noble  man  and  beloved  president,  then  lying  dead  on  his 
stately  catafalque  in  Cleveland,  as  were  anywhere  seen. 
The  weather  itself,  in  these  remote  and  lonely  mountains, 
seemed  in  unison  with  the  sadness  of  the  nation,  for  heavy 
black  clouds  swept  overhead,  and  the  wind  made  solemn 
moanings  in  the  shaken  trees.  It  was  under  circum¬ 
stances  so  fittingly  mournful  that  an  excursion  party, 
gathered  from  nearly  every  state  in  the  Union,  paused  to 
express  the  universal  sorrow,  and  to  conceive  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  the  massive  monument  which  catches  the  traveler’s 
eye  on  the  brink  of  the  gorge,  and  upon  whose  polished 
tablet  are  engraved  these  words : 


In  /ffoemodant 

JAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 
DIED  SEPTEMBER  19,  1881 
MOURNED  BY  ALL  THE  PEOPLE 

Erected  by  Members- of  the  National 
Association  of  General  Passenger 
and  Ticket  Agents,  who  held  Me¬ 
morial  Burial  Services  on  this 
spot,  September  26,  1881 


AUDUBON  AS  TRAVELER  AND  EXPLORER. 


John  James  Audubon,  America’s  famous  Naturalist  was  born  in 
Louisiana  in  1780.  A  bird-lover  from  his  boyhood,  and  an  artist  by 
nature,  his  father  sent  him  to  Paris  to  study.  On  his  return  he  studied 
his  favorite  birds  in  the  West  and  the  South,  and  as  a  result  pub¬ 
lished  his  world-famed  “  Birds  of  America,”  containing  pictures  of 
more  than  a  thousand  birds,  life  size  and  in  their  natural  colors. 

OT  alone  is  Audubon  entitled  to  take  first  rank  for 


his  close  observation  and  accurate  portrayal  of 


-  ^  the  birds  of  onr  country,  but  as  a  traveler  and  an 

explorer  in  search  of  the  objects  of  his  study  he  is  worthy 
of  high  distinction ;  and  his  descriptions  of  the  sights  and 
scenes  of  nature  in  all  her  varied  aspects  are  among  the 
gems  of  our  literature  of  travel. 

The  sunshine  and  the  open  air,  the  dense  shade  of  the 
forest,  and  the  boundless  undulations  of  the  prairies,  the 
roar  of  the  sea  beating  against  the  rock-ribbed  shore,  the 
solitary  wilderness  of  the  Upper  Arkansas,  the  Savan¬ 
nahs  of  the  South,  the  beautiful  Ohio,  the  vast  Missis¬ 
sippi,  and  the  green  steeps  of  the  Alleghanies — all  were 
as  familiar  to  Audubon  as  his  own  home. 

In  one  of  his  excursions  on  the  Ohio,  Audubon  was  ac¬ 
companied  by  his  wife  and  eldest  son,  then  an  infant;  and 
they  floated  on  from  Pennsylvania  to  Kentucky,  sleep¬ 
ing  and  living  in  the  boat,  under  the  Indian  summer  sun 
and  the  mellowed  beauty  of  the  moon,  skirting  the  de¬ 
licious  shores,  so  picturesque  and  lovely  at  that  autumn 
season,  gliding  along  the  stream,  and  meeting  with  no 
other  ripple  of  the  water  than  that  formed  by  the  pro¬ 
pulsion  of  the  boat.  The  margins  of  the  river  were  at 
that  time  abundantly  supplied  with  game,  and  occasion¬ 
ally  the  party  landed  at  night  on  the  green  shore;  a  few 
gunshots  procured  a  wild  turkey  or  grouse,  or  a  blue- 
winged  teal ;  a  fire  was  struck  up,  and  a  comfortable  re¬ 
past  secured;  after  which  the  family  again  proceeded 
quietly  on  their  way  down  stream.  The  following  is  only 
one  of  the  many  lovely  pictures  sketched  by  Audubon  of 


88 


*  • —  -  .  .u 

) 


Upper  Sarah ac  lake. 


Lake-  Champlain. 


UPPER  SARANAC  LAKE  AND  LAKE  CHAMPLAIN 
The  lakes  of  the  upper  part  of  the  State  of  New  York 
are  not  only  attractive  for  the  lover  of  Nature,  but  they  con¬ 
tain  many  places  of  celebrity  and  of  historic  interest. 

At  the  confluence  of  the  outlet  of  Lake  George  and  Lake 
Champlain  the  ruins  of  the  fort  of  Ticonderoga frown  from  the 
summit  of  a  high  rocky  bluff;  the  place  where  Burgoyne 
held  his  counsel  with  the  Indian  tribes,  where  Arnold  and 
Carlton  fought,  where  Commodore  McDonough  gained  his 
victory  over  the  British,  and  many  other  points  of  historic 
interest  are  to  be  found  in  this  region.  The  whole  of  this 
lake  system  with  its  mountain  region  is  one  of  the  most 
attractive  health  resorts  of  our  country. 


AUDUBON  AS  TRAVELER  AND  EXPLORER 


91 


this  enchanting  sail,  which  probably  Longfellow  had  in 
his  mind’s  eye  when  he  penned  the  charming  description 
in  his  “  Evangeline:  ” 

‘ ‘  As  night  came,  sinking  in  darkness  the  broader  por¬ 
tions  of  the  river,  our  minds  became  affected  by  strong 
emotions,  and  wandered  far  beyond  the  present  moments. 
The  tinkling  of  the  bells  told  us  that  the  cattle  which  bore 
them  were  gently  roving  from  valley  to  valley  in  search 
of  food,  or  returning  to  their  distant  homes.  The  hoot¬ 
ing  of  the  great  owl,  or  the  muffled  noise  of  its  wings  as 
it  sailed  smoothly  over  the  stream,  were  matters  of  in¬ 
terest  to  us;  so  was  the  sound  of  the  boatman’s  horn,  as 
it  came  more  and  more  softly  from  afar.  When  daylight 
returned,  many  songsters  burst  forth  with  echoing  notes, 
more  and  more  mellow  to  the  listening  ear.  Here  and 
there  the  lonely  cabin  of  a  squatter  struck  the  eye,  giving 
note  of  commencing  civilization.  The  crossing  of  the 
stream  by  a  deer  foretold  how  soon  the  hills  would  be 
covered  with  snow.  ’  ’ 

The  scene  is  greatly  changed  since  then.  The  shores 
are  inhabited;  the  woods  are  mainly  cleared  away;  the 
great  herds  of  elk,  deer,  and  buffalo  have  ceased  to  exist ; 
villages,  farms,  and  towns  margin  the  Ohio ;  hundreds  of 
steamboats  are  plying  up  and  down  the  river,  by  night 
and  by  day;  and  thousands  of  immigrants  have  settled 
down,  in  all  directions,  to  the  pursuits  of  agriculture  and 
commerce,  where  once  were  heard  the  hoot  of  the  owl,  the 
cry  of  the  whip-poor-will,  and  the  sharp  stroke  of  the 
squatter’s  axe. 

At  another  time  he  takes  you  into  the  Great  Pine 
swamp,  like  a  “  mass  of  darkness,”  the  ground  over¬ 
grown  by  laurels  and  pines  of  all  sorts;  he  has  his  gun 
and  note-book  in  hand,  and  soon  you  have  the  wood- 
thrush,  wild  turkeys,  pheasants,  and  grouse  lying  at  his 
feet,  with  the  drawings  of  which  he  enriches  his  portfolio ; 
or  you  are  listening  to  his  host,  while  he  reads  by  the  log 
fire  the  glorious  poetry  of  Burns.  Again,  you  are  with 
him  on  the  wild  prairie,  treading  some  old  Indian  track, 
amid  brilliant  flowers  and  long  grass,  the  fawns  and  their 


92 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


dams  gambolling  along  his  path,  and  across  boundless 
tracts  of  rich  lands  as  yet  almost  untrodden  by  the  foot 
of  the  white  man,  and  then  only  by  the  Canadian  trappers 
or  Indian  missionaries.  Or  he  is  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  where  the  great  magnolia  shoots  up  its 
majestic  trunk,  crowned  with  evergreen  leaves,  and 
decorated  with  a  thousand  beautiful  flowers,  that  perfume 
the  air  around ;  where  the  forests  and  fields  are  adorned 
with  blossoms  of  every  hue;  where  the  golden  orange 
ornaments  the  gardens  and  the  groves ;  where  the  white- 
flowered  Stuartia  and  innumerable  vines  festoon  the 
dense  foliage  of  the  magnificent  woods,  shedding  on  the 
vernal  breeze  the  perfume  of  their  clustered  flowers; 
there,  by  the  side  of  deep  streams,  or  under  the  dense 
foliage,  he  watches  by  night  the  mocking-bird,  the  whip- 
poor-will,  the  yellow-throat,  the  hunting-bird,  and  the 
thousand  beautiful  songsters  of  that  delicious  land.  Then 
a  crevasse,  or  sudden  irruption  of  the  swollen  Mississippi, 
occurs,  and  forthwith  he  is  floating  over  the  submerged 
lands  of  the  interior,  nature  all  silent  and  melancholy, 
unless  when  the  mournful  bleating  of  the  hemmed-in  deer 
reaches  the  ear,  or  the  dismal  scream  of  an  eagle  or  a 
raven  is  heard,  as  the  bird  rises  from  the  carcass  on 
which  it  had  been  satisfying  its  appetite. 

In  the  course  of  his  extensive  wanderings,  Audubon 
experienced  all  sorts  of  adventures.  Once  he  was  within 
an  inch  of  his  life  in  a  solitary  squatter’s  hut  in  one  of 
the  wide  prairies  of  the  upper  Mississippi ;  in  one  of  the 
extensive  swamps  of  the  Choctaw  territory  in  the  State 
of  Mississippi,  he  joined  in  the  hunt  of  a  ferocious  cougar 
or  painter  (panfher)  which  had  been  the  destruction  of 
the  flocks  in  that  neighborhood;  in  the  barrens  of  Ken¬ 
tucky  he  was  once  surprised  by  an  earthquake,  the  ground 
rising  and  falling  under  his  terrified  horse  like  the  ruffled 
waters  of  a  lake;  he  became  familiar  with  storms  and 
hurricanes,  which  only  afforded  new  subjects  for  his 
graphic  pen;  he  joined  in  the  Kentucky  hunting  sports, 
or  with  the  Indian  expeditions  on  the  far  prairie ;  he  wit¬ 
nessed  the  astounding  flights  of  wild  pigeons  in  countless 


AUDUBON  AS  TRAVELER  AND  EXPLORER 


93 


multitudes,  lasting  for  whole  days  in  succession,  so  that 
il  the  air  was  literally  filled  with  pigeons,  the  light  of 
noonday  obscured  as  by  an  eclipse,  and  the  continued 
buzzing  of  the  millions  of  wings  had  a  tendency  to  lull 
the  senses  to  repose  one  of  these  enormous  flocks  ex¬ 
tending,  it  is  estimated  by  Audubon,  over  a  space  of  not 
less  than  180  miles ;  then  he  is  on  the  trail  of  the  deer  or 
the  buffalo  in  the  hunting-grounds  of  the  far  West,  he 
misses  his  way,  and  lies  down  for  the  night  in  the  copse 
under  the  clear  sky,  or  takes  shelter  with  a  trapper,  where 
he  is  always  welcome;  then  he  is  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
spending  weeks  together  in  the  pursuit  of  birds,  or  ob¬ 
serving  their  haunts  and  habits ;  then  again  he  is  in  the 
thick  of  a  bear-hunt. 

Accompanied  "by  his  wife,  Audubon  left  New  Orleans 
in  January,  1830,  went  to  New  York,  and  from  thence  to 
England,  where  he  arrived  to  receive  a  diploma  from  the 
Royal  Society,  which  he  esteemed  as  a  great  honor. 
Returning  home  in  1831,  he  took  with  him  two  assistants, 
his  work  assuming  an  importance  not  before  dreamed  of. 
The  government  now  aided  him,  and  he  was  provided  with 
letters  of  protection  along  the  frontiers,  which  proved 
valuable  helps.  His  chief  field  of  investigation  this  year 
was  Florida— full  of  interest  and  novelty  to  the  ornitholo¬ 
gist.  It  was,  comparatively,  a  new  field,  and  Audubon 
explored  it  with  his  usual  enthusiasm.  There,  along  the 
reef-bound  coast  about  Key  West,  and  among  the  islets 
of  coral  that  everywhere  rise  from  the  surface  of  the 
ocean  like  gigantic  water-lilies,  he  cruised  in  his  bark, 
often  under  a  burning  sun,  pushing  for  miles  over  soapy 
flats,  tormented  by  myriads  of  insects,  but  eager  to  pro¬ 
cure  some  new  heron,  the  possession  of  which  would  at 
once  compensate  him  for  all  his  toils.  There,  in  their 
native  haunts,  he  studied  the  habits  of  the  sandpiper  and 
the  cormorant,  and  scoured  the  billows  after  the  fulnjar 
and  the  frigate-bird.  There,  along  the  shore,  among  its 
luxuriant  fringe  of  flowers,  plants,  and  trees,  gorgeously 
luxuriant,  he  followed  after  birds  nearly  all  of  which  were 
new  to  him,  and  which  filled  him  with  boundless  delight. 


94  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

On  the  east  coast  of  Florida,  he  was  surprised  and  de¬ 
lighted  at  the  wild  orange-groves  through  which  his  steps 
often  led  him;  the  rich  perfume  of  the  blossoms,  the 
golden  hue  of  the  fruits  that  hung  on  every  twig  and  lay 
scattered  on  the  ground,  and  the  deep  green  of  the  glossy 
leaves  which  sometimes  half  concealed  the  golden  fruit. 
Audubon  used  sometimes  to  pass  through  orange-groves 
of  this  kind  a  full  mile  in  extent,  quenching  his  thirst  with 
the  luscious  fruit,  and  delighted  at  the  rich  variety  of  life 
with  which  the  woods  were  filled. 

Having  received  letters  from  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Navy  and  Treasury  of  the  United  States  to  the  command¬ 
ing  officers  of  the  vessels  of  war  and  of  the  reserve  serv¬ 
ice,  directing  them  to  afford  assistance  to  Audubon  in  his 
labors,  he  on  one  occasion  embarked  at  St.  Augustine,  in 
the  schooner  “  Spark/’  for  St.  John’s  river,  a  little  to  the 
north.  He  now  studied,  amid  their  haunts  along  the 
coast,  the  snowy  pelican,  cormorants,  sea-eagles,  and  blue 
herons;  and  sailed  for  one  hundred  miles  up  the  river, 
between  banks  swarming  with  alligators,  where  he  landed 
and  made  familiar  acquaintance  with  beautiful  humming- 
birds,  and  the  other  frequenters  of  the  groves  and 
thickets  in  that  tropical  region.  Here  is  an  ugly  phase  of 
the  naturalist’s  life : 

“  Alligators  were  extremely  abundant,  and  the  heads 
of  the  fishes  which  they  had  snapped  off  lay  floating 
around  on  the  dark  waters.  A  rifle-bullet  was  now  and 
then  sent  through  the  eye  of  one  of  the  largest,  which, 
with  a  tremendous  splash  of  its  tail,  expired.  One  morn¬ 
ing  we  saw  a  monstrous  fellow  lying  on  the  shore.  I  was 
desirous  of  obtaining  him,  to  make  an  accurate  drawing 
of  his  head,  and,  accompanied  by  my  assistant  and  two  of 
the  sailors  proceeded  cautiously  toward  him.  When 
within  a  few  yards,  one  of  us  fired  and  sent  through  his 
side  an  ounce  ball,  which  tore  open  a  hole  large  enough 
to  receive  a  man’s  hand.  He  slowly  raised  his  head,  bent 
himself  upward,  opened  his  huge  jaws,  swung  his  tail  to 
and  fro,  rose  on  his  legs,  blew  in  a  frightful  manner,  and 
fell  to  the  earth.  My  assistant  leaioed  on  shore,  and,  con- 


AUDUBON  AS  TRAVELER  AND  EXPLORER 


95 


trary  to  my  injunctions,  caught  hold  of  the  animal’s  tail; 
when  the  alligator,  awaking  from  its  trance,  with  a  last 
effort  crawled  slowly  toward  the  water,  and  plunged 
heavily  into  it.  Had  he  once  thought  of  flourishing  his 
tremendous  weapon,  there  might  have  been  an  end  of  his 
assailant’s  life;  but  he  fortunately  went  in  peace  to  his 
grave,  where  we  left  him,  as  the  water  was  deep.  The 
same  morning  another  of  equal  size  was  observed  swim¬ 
ming  directly  for  the  bows  of  our  vessel,  attracted  by  the 
gentle  rippling  of  the  water  there.  One  of  the  officers, 
who  had  watched  him,  fired  and  scattered  his  brains 
through  the  air,  when  he  trembled  and  rolled  at  a  fearful 
rate,  blowing  all  the  while  most  furiously.  The  river  was 
bloody  for  yards  round ;  but  although  the  monster  passed 
close  by  the  vessel,  we  could  not  secure  him,  and  after  a 
while  he  sank  to  the  bottom.” 

At  other  times,  Audubon  was  carried  out  beyond  the 
coral  reefs  which  surround  the  Floridian  coast,  to  the 
Keys,  or  islands  standing  out  a  little  to  sea.  These  were 
covered  with  rich  vegetation,  and  full  of  life.  The  shores 
were  also  swarming  with  crabs  and  shellfish  of  pll  kinds. 
“  One  of  my  companions  thrust  himself  into  the  tangled 
groves  that  covered  all  but  the  beautiful  coral  beach  that 
in  a  continued  line  bordered  the  island,  while  others  gazed 
on  the  glowing  and  diversified  hues  of  the  curious  in¬ 
habitants  of  the  deep.  I  saw  one  rush  into  the  limpid  ele¬ 
ment  to  seize  on  a  crab,  that,  with  claws  extended  upward, 
awaited  his  opponent,  as  if  determined  not  to  give  way. 
A  loud  voice  called  him  back  to  the  land,  for  sharks  are 
as  abundant  along  those  shores  as  pebbles,  and  the  hungry 
prowlers  could  not  have  got  a  more  dainty  dinner.  ’  ’ 

Flamingoes,  ibises,  pelicans,  cormorants,  and  herons 
frequent  those  islands  in  vast  numbers,  and  turtles  and 
sea-cows  bask  along  their  shores.  The  party  landed  at 
night  on  the  Indian  Key,  where  they  were  kindly  wel¬ 
comed  ;  and,  while  the  dance  and  the  song  were  going  on 
around  him,  Audubon,  his  head  filled  with  his  pursuit,  sat 
sketching  the  birds  that  lie  had  seen,  and  filling  up  liis 
notes  respecting  the  objects  witnessed  in  the  course  of  the 


96 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


day.  Thus  it  is  that  his  descriptions  have  so  strong  and 
fresh  a  flavor  of  nature,  and  that  to  read  them  is  like 
being  present  at  the  scenes  he  so  graphically  depicts. 
After  supper,  the  lights  were  put  out,  the  captain 
returned  to  his  vessel,  and  the  ornithologist,  with  his 
young  men,  “  slept  in  light  swinging  hammocks  under  the 
eaves  of  the  piazza.”  It  was  the  end  of  April,  when  the 
nights  are  short  there  and  the  days  long;  so,  anxious  to 
turn  every  moment  to  account,  they  were  all  on  board 
again  at  three  o’clock  next  morning,  and  proceeded  out¬ 
ward  to  sea.  He  thus  briefly  describes  a  sunrise  on  one 
of  those  early  April  mornings : 

i  ‘  The  gentle  sea-breeze  glided  over  the  flowing  tide,  the 
horizon  was  clear,  and  all  was  silent  save  the  long  break¬ 
ers  that  rushed  over  the  distant  reefs.  As  we  were  pro¬ 
ceeding  toward  some  keys  seldom  visited  by  man,  the  sun 
rose  from  the  bosom  of  the  waters  with  a  burst  of  glory 
that  flashed  on  my  soul  the  idea  of  that  Power  which 
called  into  existence  so  magnificent  an  object.  The  moon, 
thin  and  pale,  as  if  ashamed  to  show  her  feeble  light,  con¬ 
cealed  herself  in  the  dim  west.  The  surface  of  the  waters 
shone  in  its  tremulous  smoothness,  and  the  deep  blue  of 
the  clear  beams  was  pure  as  the  world  that  lies,  beyond 
them.  The  heron  flew  heavily  toward  the  land,  like  the 
glutton  retiring  at  daybreak,  with  well-lined  paunch,  from 
the  house  of  some  wealthy  patron  of  good  cheer.  The 
night-heron  and  the  owl,  fearful  of  day,  with  hurried 
flight  sought  safety  in  the  recesses  of  the  deepest  swamps ; 
while  the  gulls  and  terns,  ever  cheerful,  gamboled  over  the 
waters,  exulting  in  the  prospect  of  abundance.  I  also 
exulted  in  hope;  my  whole  frame  seemed  to  expand;  and 
our  sturdy  crew  showed,  by  their  merry  faces,  that  nature 
had  charms  for  them  too.  How  much  of  beauty  and  joy  is 
lost  to  those  who  never  view  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  of 
whose  waking  existence  the  best  half  is  nocturnal.” 

They  landed  on  Sandy  island,  which  lies  about  six  miles 
from  the  extreme  point  of  South  Florida,  stretching  away 
down  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  they  laid  themselves  down 
in  the  sand  to  sleep,  the  waters  almost  bathing  their  feet; 


AUDUBON  AS  TRAVELER  AND  EXPLORER 


97 


the  boat  lay  at  tlieir  side,  like  a  whale  reposing  on  a  mud- 
bank.  Birds  in  myriads  fed  around  them  —  ibises,  god- 
wits,  herons,  fisli-crows,  and  frigate  pelicans.  Having 
explored  the  island,  and  shot  a  number  of  birds,  they  pro¬ 
ceeded  back  to  land  through  the  tortuous  channels  among 
the  reefs,  and  were  caught  by  one  of  those  sudden  hurri¬ 
canes  which  so  often  sweep  across  the  seas.  And  here  is 
Audubon’s  picture  of  the  storm: 

“  We  were  not  more  than  a  cable’s  length  from  the 
shore,  when,  with  imperative  voice,  the  pilot  said  to  us: 
•'  Sit  quite  still,  gentlemen,  for  I  should  not  like  to  lose  you 
overboard  just  now;  the  boat  can’t  upset,  my  word  for 
that,  if  you  but  sit  still.  Here  you  have  it !  ’  Persons  who 
have  never  witnessed  hurricanes  such  as  not  infrequently 
desolate  the  sunny  climates  of  the  south,  can  scarcely 
form  an  idea  of  their  terrific  grandeur.  One  would  think 
that,  not  content  with  laying  waste  all  on  land,  it  must 
needs  sweep  the  waters  of  the  shallows  quite  dry  to 
quench  its  thirst.  No  respite  for  an  instant  does  it  afford 
to  the  objects  within  the  reach  of  its  furious  current. 
Like  the  scythe  of  the  destroying  angel,  it  cuts  everything 
by  the  roots,  as  it  were,  with  the  careless  ease  of  the  ex¬ 
perienced  mower.  Each  of  its  revolving  sweeps  collects 
a  heap  that  might  be  likened  to  the  full  sheaf  which  the 
husbandman  flings  by  his  side.  On  it  goes,  with  a  wild¬ 
ness  and  fury  that  are  indescribable ;  and  when  at  last  its 
frightful  blasts  have  ceased,  Nature,  weeping  and  dis¬ 
consolate,  is  left  bereaved  of  her  beauteous  offspring.  In 
some  instances  even  a  full  century  is  required  before,  with 
all  her  powerful  energies,  she  can  repair  her  loss.  The 
planter  has  not  only  lost  his  mansion,  his  crops,  and  his 
flocks,  but  he  has  to  clear  his  lands  anew,  covered  and 
entangled  as  they  are  with  the  trunks  and  branches  of 
trees  that  are  everywhere  strewn.  The  bark,  overtaken 
by  the  storm,  is  cast  on  the  leesliore,  and,  if  any  are  left 
to  witness  the  fatal  results,  they  are  the  4  wreckers  ’  alone, 
who,  with  inward  delight,  gaze  upon  the  melancholy 
spectacle.  Our  light  bark  shivered  like  a  leaf  the  instant 
the  blast  reached  her  sides.  We  thought  she  had  gone 


98 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


over,  but  tlie  next  instant  she  was  on  the  shore.  And  now, 
in  contemplation  of  the  sublime  and  awful  storm,  I  gazed 
around  me.  The  waters  drifted  like  snow,  the  tough  man¬ 
groves  hid  their  tops  amid  their  roots,  and  the  loud  roar¬ 
ing  of  the  waves  driven  among  them  blended  with  the 
howl  of  the  tempest.  It  was  not  rain  that  fell ;  the  masses 
of  water  flew  in  a  horizontal  direction,  and  when  a  part 
of  my  body  was  exposed,  I  felt  as  if  a  smart  blow  had 
been  given  to  it.  But  enough !  —  in  half  an  hour  it  was 
over.  The  pure  blue  sky  once  more  embellished  the 
heavens,  and  although  it  was  now  quite  night,  we  con¬ 
sidered  our  situation  a  good  one.  The  crew  and  some  of 
the  party  spent  the  night  in  the  boat.  The  pilot,  myself, 
and  one  of  my  assistants,  took  to  the  heart  of  the  man¬ 
groves,  and  having  found  high  land,  we  made  a  fire  as 
well  as  we  could,  spread  a  tarpaulin,  and,  fixing  our  in¬ 
sect  bars  over  us,  soon  forgot  in  sleep  the  horrors  that 
had  surrounded  us.  ’  ’ 

At  another  time  the  grand,  rocky  coasts  of  Labrador, 
haunted  by  innumerable  sea-birds,  attracted  him.  At 
Eastport,  in  Maine,  he  chartered  a  beautiful  and  fast¬ 
sailing  schooner,  the  ‘ 4  Bipley,  ’  ’  and  set  sail,  with  several 
friends,  on  his  delightful  voyage.  He  passed  out  of  the 
port  under  a  salute  of  honor  from  the  guns  of  the  fort, 
and  of  the  revenue-cutter  at  anchor  in  the  bay.  Touching 
islands  in  the  St.  Lawrence  Gulf,  each  haunted  by  its  pe¬ 
culiar  tribes  of  birds,  a  heavy  gale  came  on,  and  the 
vessel  sped  away,  under  reefed  sails,  to  the  coast  of 
Labrador.  Masses  of  drifting  ice  and  snow,  filling  every 
nook  and  cove  of  the  rugged  shores,  came  in  sight ;  they 
neared  the  coast  at  the  place  called  the  “American  Har¬ 
bor,  ’  ’  and  there  Audubon  landed.  The  ‘  ‘  Bipley  ’  ’  sailed 
further  north,  and  entered  the  harbor  of  Little  Macatina, 
of  which  this  is  his  description: 

“  It  was  the  middle  of  July:  the  weather  was  mild,  and 
very  pleasant;  our  vessel  made  her  way,  under  a  smart 
breeze,  through  a  very  narrow  passage,  beyond  which  we 
found  ourselves  in  a  small,  circular  basin  of  water,  having 


AUDUBON  AS  TRAVELER  AND  EXPLORER  99 

4 

ian  extent  of  seven  or  eight  acres.  It  was  so  surrounded 
by  high,  abrupt,  and  rugged  rocks,  that,  as  I  glanced 
around,  I  could  find  no  apter  comparison  for  our  situa¬ 
tion  than  that  of  a  nut-shell  at  the  bottom  of  a  basin. 
The  dark  shadows  that  overspread  the  waters,  and  the 
mournful  silence  of  the  surrounding  desert,  sombred  our 
otherwise  glad  feelings  into  a  state  of  awe.  The  scenery 
was  grand  and  melancholy.  On  one  side  hung  over  our 
heads,  in  stupendous  masses,  a  rock  several  hundred  feet 
high,  the  fissures  of  which  might  to  some  have  looked  like 
the  mouths  of  a  huge,  undefined  monster.  Here  and 
there  a  few  dwarf  pines  were  stuck,  as  if  by  magic,  to 
this  enormous  mass  of  granite ;  in  a  gap  of  the  cliff,  the 
brood  of  a  pair  of  grim  ravens  shrunk  from  our  sight, 
and  the  gulls,  one  after  another,  began  to  wend  their  way 
overhead  toward  the  middle  of  the  quiet  pool,  as  the 
furling  of  the  sails  was  accompanied  by  the  glad  cries  of 
the  sailors.  The  remarkable  land-beacons  erected  in  that 
country  to  guide  vessels  into  the  harbor,  looked  like  so 
many  figures  of  gigantic  stature,  formed  from  the  large 
blocks  that  lay  on  every  hill  around.  A  low  valley,  in 
which  meandered  a  rivulet,  opened  at  a  distance  to  the 
view.  The  remains  of  a  deserted  camp  of  seal-catchers 
was  easily  traced  from  our  deck,  and  as  easily  could  we 
perceive  the  innate  tendency  of  man  to  mischief,  in  the 
charred  and  crumbling  ruins  of  the  dwarf-pine  forests. 
But  the  harbor  was  so  safe  and  commodious,  that,  before 
we  left  it  to  find  shelter  in  another,  we  had  cause  to  be 
thankful  for  its  friendly  protection.” 

In  1836,  he  again  visited  the  western  coast  of  Florida, 
and  sailed  through  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  New  Orleans; 
then  explored  the  coast  of  Texas  to  the  Bay  of  Galveston, 
travelled  across  Texas,  and  returned  again  to  New  Or¬ 
leans.  Crossing  the  country  by  Mobile,  Pensacola,  and 
Augusta,  he  again  reached  Charleston,  and  thence  north¬ 
ward  by  Washington  to  New  York.  He  embarked  again 
for  England  in  1837,  where  new  honors  and  diplomas 
awaited  him,  bringing  out  his  fourth  volume  of  ‘  ‘  Ornitho¬ 
logical  Biography  ”  at  the  end  of  1838.  He  was  now 


100 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


sixty-three  years  of  age,  but,  speaking  of  himself,  he  ob¬ 
served:  “  The  adventures  and  vicissitudes  which  have 
fallen  to  my  lot,  instead  of  tending  to  diminish  the  fervid 
enthusiasm  of  my  nature,  have  imparted  a  toughness  to 
my  bodily  constitution,  naturally  strong,  and  to  my  mind, 
naturally  buoyant,  an  elasticity  such  as  to  assure  me  that, 
though  somewhat  old,  and  considerably  denuded  in  the 
frontal  region,  I  could  yet  perform  on  foot  a  journey  of 
any  length,  were  I  sure  that  I  should  thereby  add  materi¬ 
ally  to  our  knowledge  of  the  ever-interesting  creatures 
which  have  for  so  long  a  time  occupied  my  thoughts  by 
day,  and  filled  my  dreams  with  pleasant  images.’ ’ 

“Amid  the  tall  grass,”  said  he,  “  of  the  far-extended 
prairies  of  the  West,  in  the  solemn  gusts  of  the  North,  on 
the  heights  of  the  midland  mountains,  by  the  shores  of 
the  boundless  ocean,  and  on  the  bosom  of  the  vast  lakes 
and  magnificent  rivers,  have  I  sought  to  search  out  the 
things  which  have  been  hidden  since  the  creation  of  this 
wondrous  world,  or  seen  only  by  the  naked  Indian,  who 
has,  for  unknown  ages,  dwelt  in  the  gorgeous  but  melan¬ 
choly  wilderness.  Who  is  the  stranger  to  my  own  dear 
country  that  can  form  an  adequate  conception  of  its 
primeval  woods  —  of  the  glory  of  those  columnar  trunks 
that  for  centuries  have  waved  in  the  breeze  and  resisted 
the  shock  of  the  tempest  —  of  the  vast  bays  of  our  At¬ 
lantic  coasts,  replenished  by  thousands  of  streams,  differ¬ 
ing  in  magnitude  as  differ  the  stars  that  sparkle  in  the 
expanse  of  the  pure  heavens  —  of  the  density  of  aspect 
in  our  Western  plains,  our  sandy  Southern  shores,  inter¬ 
spersed  with  reedy  swamps,  and  the  cliffs  that  protect  our 
Eastern  coasts  —  of  the  rapid  currents  of  the  Mexican 
Gulf,  and  the  rushing  tide-streams  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy  — 
of  our  ocean  lakes,  our  mighty  rivers,  our  thundering 
cataracts,  our  majestic  mountains,  rearing  their  snowy 
heads  into  the  calmest  regions  of  the  clear  cold  sky? 
Would  that  I  could  delineate  the  varied  features  of  that 
loved  land!  ” 


THE  THOUSAND  ISLANDS 

Probably  nature  presents  no  greater  variety  of  beautiful 
scenery  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  labyrinth  of  land  and  water 
known  as  the  Thousand  Islands  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River, 
while  the  names  of  the  places  in  and  around  about  them  are 
full  of  historic  memories  and  associations,  while  to  the  natur¬ 
alist  it  is  full  of  interest,  the  traveller  and  explorer  will  find 
constantly  new  delights. 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  GREAT  WEST  OR  THE 
DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


BY 

Archibald  Williams. 

PARALLEL  to  the  coast  of  Upper  California,  at  a 
distance  inland  of  about  200  miles,  runs  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  a  continuous  and  lofty  range  marked  by 
a  line  of  dominant  peaks,  many  of  which  are  over  14,000 
feet  high.  It  has  an  average  width  of  about  eighty  miles, 
and  its  western  slopes  are  more  gentle  than  the  eastern, 
which  abound  in  precipitous  declines. 

From  the  mountains  many  streams  hurry  westward  to 
join  a  main  river,  called  the  Sacramento,  flowing  into  the 
San  Francisco  Bay.  On  their  way  these  tributaries  cut 
through  mighty  deposits  of  gravel,  which  in  the  course 
of  the  ages  have  been  detached  from  the  heights  and  dis¬ 
tributed  along  the  valleys.  From  the  latitude  of  San 
Francisco  north  to  Oregon  the  strata  of  the  range  have 
received  a  liberal  salting  with  gold  at  the  hands  of 
Nature;  and  the  water  has  separated  huge  quantities  of 
it  from  its  bed,  to  strew  it  in  the  river  courses  and  in 
gulches  through  which  streams  no  longer  flow. 

This  huge  auriferous  belt  on  the  Sierra’s  western  slope 
is  the  Eldorado  of  the  West. 

One  January  day  in  1848  a  Mr.  Marshall  was  making 
alterations  at  his  saw-mill  on  the  Americanos  River, 
which  enters  the  Sacramento  at  a  point  where  the  town 
of  the  same  name  now  rises.  The  tail-race  of  the  mill 
being  too  narrow  to  allow  the  water  to  run  off  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  get  full  work  out  of  the  wheel,  he  threw  the 
mill-wheel  out  of  gear,  and  suddenly  let  the  whole  body 
of  water  behind  the  dam  loose  into  the  race.  This  opera¬ 
tion  considerably  enlarged  the  narrow  channel,  and  a 
mass  of  sand  and  gravel  was  carried  off  by  the  force  of 

From  “  The  Romance  of  Mining.”  London, 

103 


104 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


tlie  current.  Captain  Sutter,  a  neighbor,  thus  related 
what  followed  to  Dr.  J.  Tyrwhitt  Brooks,  one  of  the 
pioneer  miners:1  “  Early  in  the  morning  after  this  took 
place,  he  was  walking  along  the  left  bank  of  the  stream, 
when  he  perceived  something  which  he  at  first  took  for 
a  piece  of  opal  —  a  clear  transparent  stone,  very  common 
there  —  glittering  on  one  of  the  spots  laid  bare  by  the 
sudden  crumbling  of  the  bank.  He  paid  no  attention  to 
this :  but  while  he  was  giving  directions  to  the  workmen, 
having  observed  several  similar  glittering  fragments,  his 
curiosity  was  so  far  excited  that  he  stooped  down  and 
picked  one  of  them  up.  ‘  Do  you  know,’  said  Mr.  Marsh¬ 
all  to  me,  ‘  I  positively  debated  with  myself  two  or  three 
times  whether  I  should  take  the  trouble  to  bend  my  back 
to  pick  up  one  of  the  pieces,  and  had  decided  on  not  doing 
so,  when,  further  on,  another  glittering  morsel  caught  my 
eye  —  the  largest  of  the  pieces  now  before  you.  I  con¬ 
descended  to  pick  it  up,  and  to  my  astonishment  found 
it  was  a  thin  scale  of  what  appears  to  be  pure  gold.  ’  He 
then  gathered  some  twenty  or  thirty  similar  pieces,  which 
on  examination  convinced  him  that  his  suppositions  were 
right.  His  first  impression  was  that  this  gold  had  been 
lost  or  buried  there  by  some  early  Indian  tribe  —  perhaps 
some  of  those  mysterious  inhabitants  of  the  west,  of  whom 
we  have  no  account,  but  who  dwelt  on  this  continent 
centuries  ago,  and  built  those  cities  and  temples,  the  ruins 
of  which  are  scattered  about  these  solitary  wilds.  On 
proceeding,  however,  to  examine  the  neighboring  soil, 
he  discovered  that  it  was  more  or  less  auriferous.  This 
at  once  decided  him.  He  mounted  his  horse,  and  rode 
down  to  me  as  fast  as  it  would  carry  him  with  the  news.  ’  ’ 
Captain  Sutter  was  soon  convinced  by  the  specimens 
shown  that  an  epoch  in  Californian  history  had  been 
opened.  Of  course  the  first  thing  for  the  two  lucky  men 
to  do  was  to  keep  the  discovery  to  themselves.  They 
visited  the  mill  and  poked  about  among  the  sand  with 
such  good  results  that  they  soon  had  collected  an  ounce 


1  u  Four  Months  among  the  Gold  Finders  in  Alta,  California,” 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  GREAT  WEST 


105 


of  the  precious  metal.  The  next  day  they  went  further 
up  the  stream,  and  found  that  gold  existed  along  the 
whole  course,  not  only  in  the  bed  of  the  main  stream,  but 
also  in  the  now  dried-up  gulches  and  creeks  leading  into 
it.  Indeed,  gold  appeared  most  plentiful  in  the  ravines, 
for  Captain  Sutter  picked  out  of  a  dry  gorge  with  his 
knife  a  lump  of  solid  gold  scaling  nearly  one  and  a  half 
ounces. 

Unfortunately  for  the  discoverer  and  his  friend,  the 
mill  workpeople  had  scented  booty.  A  Kentuckian,  sus¬ 
pecting  that  “  something  was  up,”  dogged  the  prospect¬ 
ors’  steps,  and  searched  for  the  object  of  their  wander¬ 
ings,  so  that  when  they  returned  to  the  mill  they  were 
astonished,  not  to  say  disgusted,  by,  the  laborers  running 
up  with  flakes  of  gold,  which  an  Indian,  who  had  pre¬ 
viously  worked  in  a  mine  in  Lower  California,  had  imme¬ 
diately  recognized  as  the  4  4  true  stuff.  ’  ’  The  secret  had 
thus  become  public  property  in  a  very  few  hours. 

Such  a  piece  of  news  soon  spread,  and  hard  on  its  heels 
came  actual  proof  of  its  truth  in  the  shape  of  gold  flakes 
sent  down  to  San  Francisco.  On  May  8  a  man  entered 
the  town  with  twenty-three  ounces  of  gold.  People  at 
once  began  with  one  voice  to  talk  of  nothing  but  the  new 
i  ‘  placers  ’  ’ —  a  Spanish  term  signifying  spots  where  gold 
is  found  mixed  with  alluvial  deposits.  Parties  were 
formed  at  once  to  visit  the  diggings,  and  individuals 
started  off  alone  with  shovels,  mattocks,  and  pans  to  dig 
the  metal  out.  The  talk  soon  bred  a  perfect  furore.  All 
the  workpeople  struck.  Out  of  fifty  new  buildings  in 
course  of  construction  only  about  half-a-dozen  were  not 
bereft  of  artisans;  the  majority  of  whom,  together  with 
lawyers,  storekeepers,  and  merchants,  were  bitten  by  the 
fever.  On  many  a  door  could  be  seen  a  paper  bearing 
the  legend,  “  Gone  to  the  diggings.” 

Wages  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  people 
who  remained  behind  could  ask  their  own  terms.  Sales¬ 
men  and  shopmen  got  $2,300  to  $2,700  a  year,  with 
board ;  and  even  boys  received  salaries  which  in  the  pre¬ 
mania  days  would  have  satisfied  the  heads  of  large  de- 


106 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


partments.  But  while  many  houses  were  being  deserted, 
fresh  inhabitants  poured  in  by  sea,  many  having  come 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  to  a  point  where  they  could 
take  ship.  Up  sprang  a  host  of  canvas  booths  to  accom¬ 
modate  the  newcomers.  In  the  better  parts  of  the  town 
stupendous  taverns,  gambling  houses,  and  other  buildings 
commanded  huge  rents ;  anything  up  to  $100,000  a  year. 
11  Skirting  the  beach,”  writes  an  eye-witness,1  “  was  a 
vast  collection  of  tents,  called  the  ‘  Happy  Valley  ’ — 
since  more  truly  designated  the  1  Sickly  Valley  * — where 
filth  of  every  description,  and  stagnant  pools,  beset  one 
at  every  stride.  In  these  tents  congregated  the  refuse  of 
all  nations,  crowded  together;  eight  people  occupying 
what  was  only  space  for  two.  Blankets,  firearms,  and 
cooking  utensils  were  the  only  worldly  property  they  pos¬ 
sessed.  Scenes  of  depravity,  sickness,  and  wretchedness 
shocked  the  moral  sense,  as  much  as  filth  and  effluvia  did 
the  nerves ;  and  such  was  the  state  of  personal  insecurity 
that  few  ‘  citizens  ’  slept  without  firearms  at  hand.  The 
constant  wearing  of  arms  by  such  a  disorderly  set, 
amongst  whom  quarrels  were  frequent,  caused  many  dis¬ 
putes  to  terminate  disastrously;  but  the  unsettled  state 
of  the  country,  and  the  many  desperate  characters  prowl¬ 
ing  about,  made  it  necessary  to  be  armed  for  self-pro¬ 
tection  —  the  weaker  party  was  only  sheltered  from  op¬ 
pression  by  a  loaded  revolver,  as  there  was  no  assistance 
to  be  expected  from  others.  Steel  and  lead  were  the  only 
arguments  available  for  redress,  and  bystanders  looked 
on  unconcernedly  at  acts  of  violence ;  the  cause  of  the  dis¬ 
pute,  or  the  justice  of  the  punishment  inflicted,  being 
seldom  inquired  into.” 

A  poor  man  arriving  in  San  Francisco  had  small  chance 
of  comfort.  Even  if  he  possessed  a  fairly  heavy  purse, 
it  soon  lost  its  weight  in  a  city  where  a  good  meal  cost 
three  dollars,  even  if  the  owner  kept  clear  of  the  many 
gambling  hells  which  kept  open  house  for  the  allurement 
of  “  greenhorns.” 

In  the  ’fifties  San  Francisco  was  very  inaccessible  as 

1  Mr.  William  Shaw. 


THE  ELDORADO  OE  THE  GREAT  WEST 


107 


compared  with  its  position  to-day  at  the  termini  of  several 
great  transcontinental  lines.  To  get  thither  from  the  east 
coast  the  traveller  had  a  choice  between  a  tedious  sea 
journey  round  the  Horn;  a  partly  sea  and  partly  land 
route  via  the  Panama  Isthmus  —  across  which  a  road  and 
subsequently  a  railroad  were  driven;  and  a  land  march  of 
some  3,000  miles.  Nevertheless,  the  distant  Sierras  soon 
teemed  with  a  population  of  many  thousands.  Most  of 
the  immigrants,  at  least  during  the  first  two  years,  came 
in  from  the  coast;  while  a  minority  worked  across  the 
trackless  plains,  braving  the  hostility  of  the  Indians  and 
the  many  physical  difficulties  of  a  passage  through  a 
waterless,  trackless,  and  arid  region.  Many  a  bloody 
battle  was  fought  between  the  white  gold-seekers  and  the 
scalp-loving  Crow,  Pawnee,  or  Sioux.  Though  the  lighter 
color  eventually  prevailed,  the  natives,  well  skilled  in  the 
arts  of  treachery  and  ambuscade,  often  murdered  parties 
of  their  natural  foes,  and  escaped  with  their  gory  trophies 
into  the  fastnesses  of  the  mountains. 

Shortly  after  the  discovery  of  gold  a  large  emigrant 
band  of  Mormons  entered  California  across  the  Rockies. 
Without  wasting  time  they  made  straight  for  the  Ameri¬ 
canos  River,  and  began  washing  out  the  golden  flakes  and 
dust  which  permeated  the  bed  of  the  stream.  They  did 
not  have  the  valley  to  themselves  for  long,  since  the 
miners  from  San  Francisco  were  now  on  the  march  to  the 
“  Mormon  Diggings,”  as  they  were  called  after  the  first- 
comers. 

The  miners  leaving  San  Francisco  for  the  goldfields 
often  banded  together  for  mutual  protection  and  help. 
The  perils  of  the  journey  were  such  as  to  render  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  a  solitary  person  a  terribly  risky  business. 

Before  starting,  the  more  prudent  gold-seekers  equip¬ 
ped  themselves  with  an  outfit,  viz. :  tent,  spades,  mattocks, 
axe,  blankets,  hides,  coffee,  sugar,  whiskey,  brandy, 
knives,  plates,  forks,  pots  and  kettles.  If  funds  per¬ 
mitted,  a  horse  or  two  would  be  added  to  the  list  as  beasts 
of  burden,  and  any  one  who  could  afford  it  purchased  a 
mount  for  his  personal  use.  .  .  . 

Vol.  IV  — 7 


108  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

At  first  operations  were  confined  almost  entirely  to  the 
shallow  or  surface  diggings,  where  the  gold  lay  at,  or 
just  below,  the  surface.  Not  until  the  superficial  stratum 
was  pretty  well  played  out  was  serious  attention  paid  to 
the  deeper  placers,  which  could  be  worked  only  through 
long  tunnels  and  shafts. 

The  principal  implements  used  for  shallow  working- 
are  the  pick  and  shovel,  pan,  cradle  or  rocker,  and  the 
sluice.  The  pan,  about  twelve  inches  in  diameter  at  the 
bottom,  is  of  stamped  iron,  and  much  resembles  the  ordi¬ 
nary  dairy  milk-pan.  To  extract  gold  from  the  earth  with 
which  it  mingles,  the  pan  is  filled  with  the  “  dirt  ”  and 
taken  into  the  water  —  a  stream,  tub,  or  pool,  as  the  case 
may  be.  It  is  submerged,  and  the  miner  works  the  dirt 
with  his  hands  until  the  lumps  have  crumbled ;  then,  hold¬ 
ing  one  side  of  the  pan  rather  higher  than  the  other,  he 
gives  it  a  peculiar  circular  motion  which  produces  a 
rotary  current  and  causes  the  lighter  portion  to  pass  over 
the  lip,  the  heavier  particles  remaining  behind.  The 
earthly  element  is  thus  gradually  eliminated,  and  the 
pebbles  are  picked  out  by  hand,  until  only  a  small  residue 
remains,  which  is  either  pure  gold,  or  gold  mixed  with  a 
small  quantity  of  sand.  The  residue  is  then  carefully 
dried  in  an  iron  vessel,  and  the  earthy  dust  can  be  blown 
away,  leaving  nothing  but  pure  gold. 

Panning  is  slow  and  laborious  work,  so  that  those  who 
had  money  or  skill  sufficient  to  provide  themselves  with 
a  rocker  —  or  “  gold  canoe,  ’ ’  as  the  Indian  styled  it  — 
resorted  to  this  less  primitive  method  of  washing.  The 
rocker  resembles  a  child’s  cradle.  About  six  inches  from 
the  top  is  a  drawer,  with  a  bottom  of  perforated  iron. 
Earth  is  thrown  by  one  man  into  the  drawer  and  well 
flooded  with  water  to  break  up  the  lumps.  A  second 
miner  rocks  the  cradle  backwards  and  forwards  till  the 
finer  contents  of  the  drawer  fall  through  into  the  sloping 
tray  below,  on  which  are  cross  bars,  called  riffles,  to  arrest 
the  gold. 

Much  more  scientific  than  either  of  these  simple  con¬ 
trivances  is  the  “  sluice,”  a  long,  slightly  inclined  trough, 


PROSPECTOR  AND  MINER 

FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH 

The  unrecorded  names  of  the  heroes  of  exploration  are 
legion: — With  pick  and  axe  thousands  of  them  have  hewn  their 
way  into  new  regions  of  our  country,  many  of  them  paying  for 
their  enterprise  with  their  lives,  but  all  of  them  paving  the  way 
for  others  and  helping  to  make  the  land  in  which  we  live  richer 
and  more  busy. 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  GREAT  WEST 


111 


through  which  water  flows  rapidly.  Its  dimensions  vary 
according  to  circumstances.  In  some  cases  only  a  single 
trough,  ten  to  twelve  inches  deep,  fifteen  to  twenty  wide, 
and  twelve  feet  long,  would  be  used ;  but  as  each  trough 
tapers  towards  its  lower  end,  any  number  can  easily  be 
fitted  one  into  the  other  to  form  a  continuous  sluice  thou¬ 
sands  of  feet  in  length.  The  trough  bottom  is  well  pro¬ 
vided  with  riffles,  sometimes  charged  with  mercury  to 
catch  the  particles  of  gold;  the  more  mercury  being 
needed  the  finer  the  separation  of  the  metal  dust.  Sluice 
washing  is,  if  possible,  carried  on  without  interruption 
day  and  night,  for  weeks,  even  for  months.  Then  comes 
the  ‘  ‘  clean-up.  ’  ’  The  gold,  either  ‘  ‘  free  ’  ’  or  amalga¬ 
mated  with  the  mercury,  is  carefully  scraped  from  the 
riffles  and  washed  clean  in  a  pan.  Amalgam  has  to  be 
squeezed  in  buckskin  or  canvas,  which  allows  the  liquid 
mercury  to  pass,  but  retains  the  solid  amalgam.  This  is 
put  into  a  retort,  and  subjected  to  great  heat  until  all  the 
mercury  has  vaporized  and  been  led  into  a  condenser, 
where  it  resumes  its  liquid  form.  The  gold  thus  obtained 
is  very  porous,  or  “  spongy,”  and  must  be  melted  down 
and  run  into  bars  to  be  fit  for  sale. 

In  ’49  and  ’50  the  rocker  and  pan  did  most  of  the  work. 
The  toil  was  severe,  in  the  case  of  the  pan,  which  required 
constant  stooping,  while  the  constant  immersion  of  the 
hands  rapidly  macerated  the  skin  and  made  them  very 
painful.  The  rocker  saved  the  hands  this  injury,  and, 
by  employing  several  sets  of  muscles,  enabled  the  miner 
to  keep  on  working  without  much  physical  discomfort. 
By  a  rule  of  the  diggings,  when  a  party  operated  a  cradle, 
a  nugget  weighing  over  half  an  ounce  was  considered  to 
be  the  private  property  of  the  person  who  found  it,  and 
was  not  added  to  the  common  fund  of  metal. 

For  five  years  the  “  rush  ”  continued.  Men  poured  in 
from  all  sides.  The  terrible  trans-continental  journey 
Was  undertaken  by  thousands  of  immigrants  who  started 
from  St.  Louis  or  Omaha  on  the  Missouri,  pushed  along 
the  Platte  Elver,  crossed  the  Eockies,  encountered  the 
horrors  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake  Desert,  and,  after  a  final 


112 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


struggle  with  the  Sierra  Nevada,  dropped  down  into  the 
Land  of  Promise,  their  numbers  sadly  thinned  by  wounds, 
accidents,  disease,  hunger,  and  thirst.  Mark  Twain,  writ¬ 
ing  of  this  route,  and  the  Great  Desert  in  particular, 
said  i1  44  It  was  a  dreary  pull,  and  a  long  and  thirsty  one, 
for  we  had  no  water.  From  one  extremity  of  this  desert 
to  the  other,  the  road  was  white  with  the  bones  of  oxen 
and  horses.  It  would  hardly  be  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  we  could  have  walked  the  forty  miles  and  set  our 
feet  on  a  bone  at  every  step !  The  desert  was  one  pro¬ 
digious  graveyard.  And  the  log-chains,  waggon-trees, 
and  rotting  wrecks  of  vehicles  were  almost  as  thick  as  the 
bones.  I  think  we  saw  log-chains  enough  rusting  there 
in  the  desert  to  reach  across  any  State  in  the  Union.  Do 
not  these  relics  suggest  something  of  an  idea  of  the  fear¬ 
ful  suffering  and  privation  the  early  immigrants  to  Cali¬ 
fornia  endured?  ” 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  many  miners  were  actually 
at  work  in  California  at  the  time  of  the  greatest  excite¬ 
ment,  but  50,000  is  the  figure  suggested  for  1850.  In 
1852  and  1853  this  number  had  probably  doubled;  and 
as  the  new-comers  found  the  rich  deposits  of  surface  gold 
ready  to  hand  the  total  output  of  these  years  marked  the 
highest  level  of  the  Californian  output  —  some  65  million 
dollars’  worth  per  annum.  Memorable  among  the  rich¬ 
est  4  4  strikes  ”  of  those  days  are  those  of  the  Stanislaus, 
Americanos,  Yuba,  and  Feather  Rivers,  where  the  fortu¬ 
nate  owners  washed  out  from  one  to  five  thousand  dollars 
a  day !  But  such  spots  as  these  were  very  limited  in  area, 
like  the  rich  44  pockets  ”  found  in  the  mountains,  where 
gold  had  accumulated  most  amazingly.  One  of  the 
pockets  yielded  $60,000  in  two  weeks ;  another  just  double 
that  amount  in  three  months ;  while  smaller  deposits,  laid 
bare  in  several  instances  bv  rooting  hogs,  panned  out 
$5,000  and  upwards. 

As  soon  as  the  richest  bars  and  gulches  had  been 
worked  over,  a  spirit  of  recklessness  affected  the  miners, 
who  were,  as  Mark  Twain  says,  44  no  simpering,  dainty, 

1  “  Roughing  it,”  Chap.  xx. 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  GREAT  WEST  113 

kid-gloved  weaklings,  but  stalwart,  dauntless  young 
braves,  brimful  of  push  and  energy,  and  royally  endowed 
with  every  attribute  that  goes  to  make  up  a  peerless  and 
magnificent  manhood  —  the  very  pick  of  the  world’s 
glorious  ones.”  Mr.  Twain  is  evidently  here  referring 
only  to  the  more  respectable  part  of  the  population,  as  the 
immigrants  certainly  contained  a  high  percentage  of 
thoroughgoing  scoundrels,  who,  if  not  villains  to  begin 
with,  rapidly  developed  into  such  under  the  deteriorating 
influences  of  gold-mining.  Yet  in  his  pages,  and  in  those 
of  Mr.  Bret  Harte,  we  are  able  to  detect  the  kindliness 
that  often  concealed  itself  under  a  rough  and  forbidding 
exterior.  The  man  who  was  ready  to  draw  his  “  gun  ” 
on  little  provocation,  could  also  lend  a  helping  hand  to  a 
mate  in  time  of  need. 

These  folk,  wrought  to  a  pitch  of  nervous  frenzy  by 
the  myriad  reports  flying  about,  were  only  too  easily  in¬ 
duced  to  leave  a  locality  of  moderate  wealth,  and  to 
plunge  into  the  unknown  beyond  the  mountains.  After 
months  of  fruitless  searching  for  the  advertised  ‘ 1  inex¬ 
haustible  focus  of  gold,  ’  ’  they  would  return  —  those  who 
had  not  succumbed  to  privation  —  poverty-stricken  and 
ragged,  to  find  the  claims  they  had  left  already  occupied 
by  fresh  arrivals.  A  great  “  rush  ”  of  this  description 
took  place  in  1855,  to  the  Kern  River,  250  miles  south  of 
San  Francisco.  Three  years  later  20,000  men  picked  up 
their  traps  and  stampeded  to  the  Fraser  River,  denuding 
California  of  a  large  proportion  of  her  workers.  The 
sufferings  of  this  misguided  mob  were  terrible;  their 
success  very  moderate. 

By  1855  the  “  shallow  placers  ”  had  been  almost  ex¬ 
hausted.  The  pan  and  rocker  no  longer  brought  out 
enough  gold  to  render  their  use  profitable.  There  re¬ 
mained,  however,  the  deeper  placers  and  the  “  lode  ” 
gold,  embedded  in  a  quartz  matrix.  So,  while  a  thousand 
little  mushroom  mining  cities,  deserted  by  their  busy 
population,  crumbled  into  ruins  amid  the  deathly  silence 
of  the  valleys,  a  hundred  more  rose  elsewhere,  occupied 
by  men  bent  on  continuing  the  search  with  a  more  scien¬ 
tific  equipment,  and  a  different  organization  of  labor. 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  NORTH  OR  THE  DIS¬ 
COVERY  OF  GOLD  IN  THE  KLONDIKE. 


BY 

Archibald  Williams. 

ONE  July  day  in  1897  a  small  steamer,  the  Ex¬ 
celsior,  steamed  into  San  Francisco  harbor  with 
a  cargo  that  would  have  shamed  many  a  Spanish 
galleon  of  old  times.  The  passengers  were  miners,  their 
faces  scarred  by  much  hardship  and  privation.  About 
their  personal  appearance  there  was  beyond  this  nothing 
remarkable ;  but  they  brought  with  them,  tied  up  in  sacks, 
skins,  old  clothes,  cans,  preserve-pots,  and  every  imagin¬ 
able  article  that  would  hold  it,  gold  dust  —  precious  gold 
dust  and  nuggets,  a  full  ton  in  weight.  From  that  moment 
millions  of  tongues  began  to  wag  about  the  marvelous 
Tom  Tiddler ’s  ground  in  Alaska  and  Northwest  Canada, 
where  gold  could  be  had  almost  for  the  trouble  of  picking 
it  up.  So  the  report  ran,  and  gossip  soon  bred  a  fever 
which  caused  men  of  all  classes  to  quit  their  work  and 
hurry  off  to  secure  in  the  distant  goldfields,  after  a  few 
months  ’  labor,  enough  wealth  to  furnish  them  with  a  com¬ 
fortable  livelihood  for  the  rest  of  their  lives.  The 
“  rushes  ”  to  California  and  the  Australian  goldfields  in 
the  middle  of  the  century  were  paralleled,  even  if  not 
surpassed.  Physical  obstacles  could  not  deter  the  ad¬ 
venturer  —  clerk,  mechanic,  government  official,  or  aristo¬ 
crat,  the  thirst  for  the  precious  metal  blinded  his  eyes  to 
the  coming  and  well-known  terrors  of  precipitous,  snow- 
clad  mountains.  Off  he  went,  full  of  hope,  but  often 
miserably  supplied  with  a  proper  outfit,  destined,  in  many 
cases,  to  leave  his  bones  in  the  passes,  or  at  the  bottom  of 
the  swirling  Yukon.  The  lucky  few  made  their  fortunes 
in  those  early  years  of  the  boom,  but  they  were  the  few. 


From  “  The  Romance  of  Mining.”  London. 

114 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  NORTH 


115 


Let  us  g’lauce  at  the  early  history  of  the  discovery  of 
the  vast  gold-bearing  gravel  regions  which  cover  many 
thousands  of  square  miles  on  both  banks  of  the  mighty 
Yukon,  a  river  ranking  very  high  among  the  great 
streams  of  the  world  in  point  of  both  length  and  volume. 
For  sixteen  hundred  miles  the  Yukon  is  navigable  by 
craft  of  the  size  of  the  largest  Mississippi  steamers,  and 
for  five  hundred  miles  above  that  by  boats  of  half  that 
size.  Rising  in  the  lakes  on  the  north  flank  of  the  St. 
Elias  Range,  at  about  the  60th  parallel  of  north  latitude, 
the  river  makes  a  huge  sweep  northwards ;  at  Fort  Yukon, 
350  miles  north,  just  touches  the  Arctic  Circle;  and  bends 
southwards  again  to  its  mouth.  About  1,600  miles  up 
from  the  sea  is  the  great  gold-scattered  tract  to  which 
men  are  hurrying,  300  miles  nearer  the  Pole  than  St. 
Petersburg.  At  midsummer  twenty-two  out  of  the 
twenty-four  hours  are  brightened  by  the  sun,  shining 
down  with  almost  tropical  heat.  At  midwinter  darkness 
claims  an  equal  proportion  of  the  day,  and  cold  lays  an 
icy  grip  on  the  country  which  is  not  slackened  for  months. 
Herein  lies  the  main  difference  between  the  early  Klon¬ 
dike  and  the  other  great  goldfields  of  the  world.  A  man 
might  be  lost  in  California,  Africa,  or  Australia,  and  yet 
manage  to  find  his  way  out.  But  not  so  here,  “  Once  in 
always  in,”  after  the  winter  had  commenced;  and  to  lose 
one’s  way  was  to  perish. 

Until  recent  years  the  Klondike  region — as  large  as 
France — was  practically  a  terra  incognita ,  traversed  by 
a  few  Esquimaux,  Indians,  and  half-breeds,  and  here  and 
there  a  white  fox-hunting  trapper.  The  bears  had  the 
district  pretty  well  to  themselves.  In  or  about  1878  the 
first  gold-prospector  entered  the  country,  and  from  that 
time  onwards  small  parties  of  miners  made  their  way 
into  the  Klondike  over  the  Chilkoot  Pass  from  Dyea  at  the 
head  of  the  Lynn  Canal.  From  the  outset  gold  was  found 
in  the  bars  of  the  Lewes  River  (the  upper  Yukon)  and  its 
tributaries,  but  generally  in  unremunerative  amounts, 
considering  the  conditions  under  which  mining  had  to  be 
conducted  in  a  region  so  remote  from  civilization.  In, 


116  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

1881,  however,  paying  “  placers  ”  were  discovered  on  the 
Big  Salmon  Biver,  and  five  years  later  the  Cassiar  Bar 
was  tapped.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year  miners  struck 

coarse  ”  gold  on  Forty-Mile  Creek,  a  feeder  of  the 
Yukon  which  enters  it  just  to  the  east  of  the  boundary  line 
between  Canada  and  Alaska.  “  The  gold,”  wrote  Dr. 
Dawson— who  afterwards  gave  his  name  to  the  chief  city 
of  the  region — ‘  6  varies  much  in  character,  but  is  quite 
often  coarse  and  nuggety,  and  very  large  amounts  have 
been  taken  out  in  favorable  places  by  individual  miners. 
Few  of  the  men  mining  here  in  1887  were  content  with 
ground  yielding  less  than  $14  a  day,  and  several  had  taken 
out  nearly  $100  a  day  for  a  short  time. ?  ’ 

A  “  city  ”  quickly  sprang  up  at  Forty-Mile,  whither 
200  out  of  250  miners  of  the  district  hastened;  and  an¬ 
other  at  Circle,  100  miles  lower  down,  in  Alaska.  These 
soon  expanded  into  places  more  worthy  of  their  title. 

A  year  which  will  always  remain  famous  in  mining  his¬ 
tory  is  1896,  when  a  miner  named  George  Carmack,  who 
had  been  diligently  searching  for  eleven  years,  tapped  the 
riches  of  the  Klondike  Biver.  While  roaming  about  with 
his  Indian  relatives  and  friends,  he  started  a  digging  on 
the  banks  of  the  Bonanza  Creek,  and  soon  found  enough 
gold  in  his  pan  to  convince  him  that  here  was  a  fortune. 
He  at  once  hurried  off  to  Forty-Mile  to  register  his  claim, 
and  after  giving  some  old  acquaintances  the  hint,  he 
started  back.  This  was  in  August,  just  as  the  winter, 
which  would  effectively  bar  the  people  of  the  outer  world 
from  entering,  had  begun. 

In  a  few  days  all  Forty-Mile  was  on  the  way,  and  soon 
350  men— who  had  the  place  all  to  themselves— were  shov¬ 
elling  at  the  richest-known  gold  deposits  in  the  world. 
Never  had  miners  had  such  a  chance!  They  knew  that 
for  several  months  no  one  could  arrive  to  share  the  spoil. 
Fortunes  were  made  at  an  astounding  rate.  Carmack 
and  three  companions  washed  out  $1,200  in  eight  days; 
while  on  the  same  creek  two  other  men  took  $4,000  in  two 
days.  Newcomers  staked  out  Creek  claims  farther  and 
farther  from  the  main  stream  of  the  Klondike,  until  the 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  NORTH 


117 


people  from  Forty-Mile  had  all  been  served.  Presently 
the  miners  from  Circle  City  got  wind  of  the  find,  and 
rnslied  up,  suffering  terribly  on  the  way  from  cold  and 
hunger. 

One  of  the  most  curious  things  connected  with  this 
strike  was  the  rich  reward  that  attended  an  act  of  sheer 
laziness.  An  ex-bartender  of  Forty-Mile,  who  was  too 
sluggish  to  go  up  to  the  top  of  the  Bonanza  Creek,  turned 
aside  into  a  subsidiary  Creek,  the  famous  Eldorado,  out 
of  which  he  made  nearly  $3,000,000. 

So  rich  was  the  “  pay  dirt,”  that  as  much  as  $800  was 
taken  out  of  a  single  pan.  On  one  claim  a  nugget  was 
picked  up  worth  $255,  and  another  one  worth  $230. 

The  gold  took  a  lot  of  getting  out,  however,  the  ground 
being  frozen  hard  as  iron.  Yet  the  digging  must  be  done 
in  winter,  since  after  the  spring  thaw  set  in  every  shaft 
became  a  well,  owing  to  the  leakage  from  the  upper  gravel 
stratum,  and  because,  though  it  would  be  impossible  to 
wash  the  dirt  when  the  thermometer  was  many  degrees 
below  zero,  the  abundance  of  summer  water  would  make 
the  “  clean-up  ”  an  easy  matter.  While  sinking  the 
shafts  the  miners  had  to  use  big  fires  to  soften  the  gravel. 
By  the  time  a  fire  had  burnt  out,  the  ground  below  it  was 
thawed  to  a  depth  of  several  inches.  Pick  and  shovel  re¬ 
moved  all  the  loose  dirt,  which  was  thrown  on  to  the 
“  dump,”  ready  for  washing  in  the  spring.  Alternate 
firing  and  digging  gradually  penetrated  the  crust  of 
gravel  to  within  a  few  feet  of  the  unworkable  bedrock  be¬ 
low,  and  then  the  real  excitement  began,  for  the  rich  pay- 
streak  rests  on  the  rock,  which  has  caught  all  the  gold 
washed  through  the  ground  by  centuries  of  rain  and 
torrential  thaws. 

The  last  eighteen  inches  or  so  of  gravel  is  laid  by  itself 
on  the  dump  and  treated  with  special  care,  that  the  dust 
and  nuggets  which  it  contains  may  be  secured.  In  deeper 
claims,  i.  e.,  those  where  the  rock  is  overlaid  by  very  deep 
gravel,  it  would  be  too  troublesome  to  dig  out  all  the 
super-incumbent  “  poor  dirt  ”;  and  small  shafts  are  sunk 
to  the  rock,  and  horizontal  “  drifts  ”  run  from  the  bottom 


118 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


through  the  rich  strata.  The  frozen  condition  of  the 
earth  here  aids  the  miner,  by  saving  him  the  labor  of  sup¬ 
porting  the  roof  of  a  drift  with  timber  props. 

All  the  winter  long  the  miners  burnt  and  dug,  piling  up 
great  heaps  of  the  precious  dirt.  With  the  spring  began 
the  “  clean-up, ”  which  yielded  most  sensational  results. 
Some  men  made  money  at  the  rate  of  seventeen  dollars  a 
■minute,  and  fortunes  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
came  out  in  a  couple  of  months.  One  miner  was  found 
looking  very  disconsolate,  and  on  being  asked  what  ailed 
him  he  replied  that  for  the  last  day  or  two  he  had  been 
making  only  $60  per  pan  washed,  in  place  of  the  $100  that 
his  earlier  washings  produced ! 

Of  all  the  300  claims  staked  out  on  Bonanza  Creek  not 
one  proved  a  failure.  Many  fortunes  were  found  in  the 
sluices  and  pans;  and  even  among  the  refuse  thrown  away 
enough  gold  remained  to  bring  wealth  to  any  one  who 
cared  to  work  it  over  again. 

At  the  end  of  the  “  clean-up  ”  a  large  proportion  of  the 
miners  were  “  made  ”  men  for  life.  Yet,  by  a  strange 
irony  of  fortune,  they  were  so  pinched  by  the  want  of  food 
that  one  man  offered  half  his  wealth  in  exchange  for  a 
single  good  square  meal.  The  first  steamer  down  the 
river  carried  on  board  nearly  a  hundred  lucky  miners, 
who,  as  mentioned  above,  reached  San  Francisco  safely 
with  their  spoil.  “  As  the  United  States  Mint  was  closed 
for  the  day,”  writes  a  witness  of  the  scene  in  the  New 
York  Tribune,  “  when  the  miners  arrived,  they  packed 
their  sacks  of  gold  dust  to  Selby’s  office.  There  a  pictur¬ 
esque  collection  of  bags  was  produced.  Some  were  made 
of  deer  hide,  and  held  as  much  as  $125,000.  Several 
miners  ran  out  of  even  canvas  bags,  and  were  forced  to 
put  their  gold  in  tumblers  and  fruit  jars,  which  they 
covered  with  writing  paper.  They  looked  like  fruit  or 
jelly  put  up  by  country  housewives.  All  the  bags  were 
weighed,  and  then,  as  fast  as  the  weight  was  recorded, 
they  were  slit  open  with  a  sharp  knife,  and  the  contents 
poured  upon  the  broad  counter,  which  had  a  depression 
in  the  middle.  The  heap  of  gold  dust  looked  like  a  pile 
of  yellow  shelled  corn.” 


THE  ELDORADO  OP  THE  NORTH 


119 


Thousands  of  gold-seekers  of  both  sexes  and  all  classes 
were  soon  hurrying  to  Pacific  ports,  bound  for  Klondike, 
not  caring  liow  they  should  reach  the  happy  hunting- 
grounds,  as  long  as  they  got  there.  The  mining  towns  of 
Colorado  and  California  were  deserted  by  their  inhab¬ 
itants,  who  turned  what  they  could  into  money  and  joined 
the  rush.  The  fever  spread  rapidly  to  inland  towns,  even 
to  Europe  and  Australia.  Men  of  all  ranks  threw  up 
their  ordinary  occupations  and  shipped  for  Alaska.  At 
Seattle,  Washington,  half  the  police  force  resigned,  and 
the  street  cars  had  to  cease  running  for  lack  of  drivers. 

By  every  mail  came  in  fresh  accounts  of  the  Klondike 
wonders,  some  doubtless  very  greatly  exaggerated.  The 
following,  which  appeared  in  the  Manchester  Guardian  of 
October  17,  1897,  is,  however,  the  statement  of  a  responsi¬ 
ble  person,  Mr.  William  Ogilvie,  a  Canadian  Government 
Surveyor,  and  as  such  may  be  trusted.  “  Talking  of  the 
reports  of  wonderful  accounts  of  gold  taken  out  in  a  single 
pan,  Mr.  Ogilvie  gave  some  of  his  own  experiences.  He 
went  into  one  of  the  richest  claims  and  asked  to  be  al¬ 
lowed  to  wash  out  a  panful  of  gold.  The  pay-streak  was 
then  very  rich,  but  standing  at  the  bottom  of  the  shaft, 
looking  at  it  by  the  light  of  a  candle,  all  that  could  be  seen 
of  the  pay-streak  was  a  yellowish-looking  dirt,  with  here 
and  there  the  sparkle  of  a  little  gold.  Mr.  Ogilvie  took 
out  a  big  panful  and  began  to  wash  it  out,  while  several 
miners  stood  about  guessing  as  to  the  result.  Five  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  was  the  top  guess  of  the  miners,  but  when 
the  gold  was  washed,  dried,  and  weighed,  it  came  to  a  little 
over  $590.  ’  ’ 

How  were  the  gold-seekers  to  reach  the  land  of  prom¬ 
ise?  Though  no  fewer  than  nine  routes  were  practicable 
in  the  summer,  three  only  were  generally  employed.  The 
easiest  and  longest  was  an  all-water  route,  by  steamer  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Yukon,  and  thence  up  the  river,  a  dis¬ 
tance  of  4,000  miles  in  all.  This  occupied  any  period  up 
to  a  month,  though,  if  the  river  steamer  were  unlucky,  a 
much  longer  time  might  be  required  to  pilot  her  through 
the  many  snags  and  sandbars  lurking  in  the  unsurveyed 


120  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

channel  of  the  Yukon.  Impatient  people  therefore  pre¬ 
ferred  the  overland  route — some  2,500  miles  shorter— via 
the  Cliilkoot  and  White  Passes  of  the  St.  Elias  range.  If 
he  meant  to  utilize  one  of  these,  the  adventurer  booked  a 
passage  to  Juneau,  where  the  outfit— mining  tools,  cook- 
ing  apparatus,  clothes,  guns,  and  large  quantities  of  pro¬ 
visions  sufficient  to  last  for  six  months— must  be  pur¬ 
chased.  Having  laid  out  his  money  to  the  best  advan¬ 
tage,  he  proceeded  to  Dyea  or  Skagway  at  the  head  of  the 
Lynn  Canal,  according  to  whether  his  choice  was  the  Chil- 
koot  or  the  White  Pass.  At  either  place,  owing  to  the 
shallow  anchorage,  the  traveler  often  had  to  wade  ashore. 
Then  he  rigged  up  a  tent,  and  sought  porters  to  carry 
his  goods  to  the  foot  of  the  Pass.  We  will  picture  the 
fortunes  of  an  1897  gold-seeker  in  the  Cliilkoot.  First 
came  a  nine-mile  tramp  over  very  rough  ground  to  Sheep 
Camp,  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  an  hour.  He  had  to  make  sev¬ 
eral  journeys  over  this  piece  if  carriers  were  few  and  his 
baggage  bulky.  This  took  about  four  days.  At  Sheep 
Camp  wood  was  scarce  and  a  fire  sorely  needed.  Porters 
having  been  engaged,  the  mountains  proper  must  be 
tackled.  Absolutely  no  vestige  of  a  trail  existed  over  the 
snowy  plateaux  which  rose  in  front,  cut  across  by  deep 
crevasses,  the  work  of  some  raging  mountain  stream.  If 
a  blizzard  overtook  the  party— as  very  often  happened— 
they  had  to  stop,  roll  themselves  up  as  best  they  might, 
and  wait  until  the  storm  abated.  The  last  part  of  the 
ascent  was  terrible,  an  almost  perpendicular  climb  up 
rocks  where  a  boulder  might  easily  be  dislodged  and  sent 
crashing  down  on  some  luckless  person  below.  “  I  have 
roughed  it,”  said  Mr.  Harry  de  Windt1  “  for  the  past  fif¬ 
teen  years  in  Siberia,  in  Borneo,  and  in  Chinese  Tartary, 
but  I  can  safely  describe  that  climb  over  the  Cliilkoot  as 
the  severest  physical  experience  of  my  life.” 

In  1898  an  aerial  wire-rope  tramway  was  established  to 
transport  baggage  up  this  precipice,  at  the  rate  of  a  cent 
a  pound. 

From  the  top  the  descent  inland  was  so  precipitous  that 
1  Strand  Magazine,  October,  1897. 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  NORTH 


121 


sleighs  had  to  be  “  given  their  head,  ’  ’  as  it  was  impossible 
to  hold  them  back.  Then  came  a  succession  of  journeys 
to  Crater  Lake,  from  which  place  Lake  Lindeman,  the 
first  of  a  chain,  was  soon  reached ;  and  a  couple  more  days 
brought  him  to  Lake  Bennet. 

The  traveler’s  troubles  were  by  no  means  over,  for  he 
must  now  build  a  boat ,  raft— something  to  carry  him  five 
hundred  miles  through  lakes  and  rapids.  This  was  a  dif¬ 
ficult  job  even  for  a  professional  boat-builder,  as  trees 
must  be  felled  and  cut  into  planks  before  he  could  think 
of  beginning  work  on  his  craft.  If  fortunate,  he  might 
possibly  pick  up  a  ready  made  skiff  for  $100  or  so.  Ten 
chances  to  one  there  was  not  such  a  thing  for  sale.  Of 
course,  if  the  outfit  did  not  include  all  proper  tools  and 
materials  for  caulking  the  boat’s  seams,  an  advance  be¬ 
came  almost  impossible.  Here  is  a  picture  of  Lake  Ben- 
net  in  June,  1898:  “  It  was  a  busy  shipbuilding  port, 

turning  out  more  boats  in  a  given  time  than  probably  any 
other  town  in  the  world,  large  or  small.  The  skilled  and 
the  unskilled  were  hewing  and  caulking,  all  bent  upon  the 
one  common  theme  of  having  a  boat,  and  by  means  of  it 
reaching  Dawson  or  some  place  in  near  proximity  to  the 
goldfields.  No  more  inspiring  lesson  teaching  man’s  in¬ 
genuity  and  determination  could  be  found  than  this  one 
of  Nature’s  shipyard.  One  and  all  seemed  to  have  got 
suited  and  fitted,  and  within  a  period  of  some  two  months 
not  less  than  two  thousand  craft— sail  boats,  scows,  and 
canoes,  many  of  the  lighter  ones  brought  bodily  over  the 
passes— were  launched  upon  the  still  icy  waters  of  Lake 
Bennet.”1 

Leaving  the  lakes,  the  voyager  entered  the  Upper 
Yukon,  and  soon  reached  the  Grand  Canon  Bapids,  nearly 
a  mile  long,  where  the  river  is  suddenly  contracted  to  a 
width  of  100  feet.  The  waves  run  high,  and  if  the  boat 
should  be  swamped,  there  is  little  chance  of  getting  out, 
as  the  sides  are  sheer  rock.  From  he, re  to  the  White 
Horse  Bapids,  known  as  44  The  Miner’s  Grave,”  from  the 
many  casualties  that  have  taken  place  in  their  turbulent 

1  “  Alaska  and  the  Klondike,”  A.  Heilprin. 


122 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


waters,  is  very  bad  going.  At  the  Rapids  a  portage  must 
be  made.  Lake  Le  Barge  is  next  reached,  a  lovely  piece 
of  water  with  practically  no  current  flowing  through  it. 
Then  the  river  again,  and  its  strong  stream  carrying  the 
boat  sixty  to  seventy  miles  a  day.  On  past  Little  Salmon 
River  to  Five  Finger  Rapids,  Rush  Rapids,  and  Rink 
Rapids,  after  which  the  dangers  of  travel  are  pretty  well 
over,  and  the  Klondike  is  reached  at  last. 

Should  the  White  Pass  have  been  chosen,  the  difficulties 
of  the  mountains  were  lessened,  partly  because  the  gra¬ 
dients  are  not  so  severe,  partly  because  it  has  an  altitude 
of  over  1,000  feet  less  than  the  Chilkoot.  The  distance, 
about  forty  miles  from  Skagway,  the  port  of  landing, 
could,  under  favorable  circumstances,  be  covered  in  a  day 
and  a  half.  From  Lake  Bennet  the  route  is  the  same  as 
that  already  described.  During  the  “  rush  ”  of  ’98  this 
Pass  was  largely  used;  and  sad  traces  of  man’s  cupidity 
remained  to  mark  the  event.  “  The  Desert  of  Sahara,” 
writes  Mr.  Heilprin,  after  crossing  the  Pass  in  1898, 
‘  ‘  with  its  lines  of  skeletons,  can  boast  of  no  such  exhibi¬ 
tion  of  carcasses.  Long  before  Bennet  was  reached,  I 
had  taken  count  of  more  than  a  thousand  unfortunates 
(horses)  whose  bodies  now  made  part  of  the  trail;  fre¬ 
quently  we  were  obliged  to  pass  directly  over  these  ghast¬ 
ly  figures  of  hide,  and  sometimes,  indeed,  broke  into  them. 
Men  whose  veracity  need  not  be  questioned  assured  me 
that  what  I  saw  was  in  no  way  the  full  picture  of  the 
c  life  ’  of  the  trail;  the  carcasses  of  that  time  were  less 
than  one-third  of  the  full  number  which  in  April  and  May 
gave  grim  character  to  the  route  to  the  new  Eldorado. 
Equally  spread  out,  this  number  would  mean  one  dead 
animal  for  every  sixty  feet  of  distance !  The  poor  beasts 
succumbed  not  so  much  to  the  hardships  of  the  trail  as  to 
lack  of  care  and  the  inhuman  treatment  which  they  re¬ 
ceived  at  the  hands  of  their  owners.  Once  out  of  the  line 
of  the  mad  rush,  perhaps  unable  to  extricate  themselves 
from  the  holding  meshes  of  soft  snow  and  of  quagmires, 
they  were  allowed  to  remain  where  they  were,  a  food 
offering  to  the  army  of  carrion  eaters  which  were  hover- 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  NORTH 


123 


ing  about,  only  too  certain  of  the  meal  which  was  being 
prepared  for  them.  Oftentimes  pack-saddles,  and  some¬ 
times  even  the  packs,  were  allowed  to  remain  with  the 
struggling  or  sunken  animal— -such  was  the  mad  race 
which  the  greed  of  gold  inspired.  ” 

After  the  1897  rush  Dawson,  the  “  Francisco  of  the 
North,”  as  it  has  been  called,  sprang  up  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Yukon  in  the  angle  between  that  river  and  the  Klon¬ 
dike.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Klondike  is  the  town 
named  after  it.  Early  in  1897  Dawson  was  only  a  small 
group  of  huts,  housing  a  few  hundred  miners.  No  less 
than  5,000  entered  the  Yukon  country  in  the  summer  of 
that  year,  and  about  40,000  in  the  summer  following.  By 
the  autumn  of  1898  Dawson  counted  at  least  20.000  in¬ 
habitants,  and  had  all  the  usual  features  of  a  u  boom  ” 
town.  That  is  to  say,  most  of  the  buildings  were  of  a 
somewhat  ramshackle  nature ;  and  prices  ruled  high.  Sup¬ 
plies  came  in  very  irregularly  by  steamers  from  St. 
Michael ’s.  The  population  was  not  a  mere  horde  of  pros¬ 
pectors  intent  upon  acquiring  gold  at  all  costs,  but  a  med¬ 
ley  in  which  Counts,  naval  and  military  officers,  scientists, 
lawyers,  pressmen,  and  storekeepers  jostled  one  another. 
You  had  your  choice  of  three  weekly  newspapers,  several 
theatres  (of  a  sort),  an  almost  unlimited  number  of  sa¬ 
loons,  and  a  couple  of  banks.  The  insecurity  of  life  and 
property  usually  associated  with  mining  towns  did  not 
exist  here,  thanks  mainly  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Canadian 
Mounted  Police.  So  much  did  people  trust  one  another, 
that  if  a  purchaser  entered  a  store,  he  said  what  he  wished 
to  have,  threw  his  bag  of  gold-dust  on  the  counter,  and 
turned  his  hack  while  the  storekeeper  weighed  it  out.  To 
watch  him  would  have  been  flagrantly  4 4  bad  form,  ’  ’  as 
implying  mistrust  of  his  honesty.  One  storekeeper  did 
take  a  mean  advantage  of  a  customer,  and  he  was 
promptly  removed  in  a  manner  resorted  to  in  communi¬ 
ties  where  rough  justice  and  revolvers  form  judge  and 
executioner. 

A  Dawson  hotel  was  not  much  to  look  at  in  those  days ; 
but  what  it  lacked  in  comforts  it  made  up  for  in  charges. 


124 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


A  guest-room  was  generally  innocent  of  looking-glass, 
washing  apparatus,  candlestick,  window-panes  (replaced 
by  canvas).  But  for  what  it  could  boast  in  the  way  of  a 
bed  $6  a  night  might  be  asked.  Board  cost  about 
$5  more  a  day.  Yet  as  regards  the  commissariat 
the  figure  is  not  excessive  in  view  of  current  prices.  Mr. 
Heilprin  details  some  of  these:  oranges  and  lemons  75 
cents  apiece;  apples  25  cents;  potatoes  and  onions  75 
cents  the  pound;  butter  $1  the  pound;  eggs,  presumably 
fresh,  but  ordinarily  with  a  stale  inheritance,  $2.50  per 
dozen;  Bass’s  ale  $2.50  a  pint;  sugar  30  cents  a  pound. 
Water-melons  not  less  than  $25  each;  and  in  scarce  times 
a  cucumber  fetched  $5.  Hay  touched  tremendous  prices 
—  $1,400  per  ton. 

All  this  has,  of  course,  been  changed  by  the  improve¬ 
ment  in  methods  of  communication.  From  the  middle  of 
May  till  the  middle  of  October  about  fifty-five  stern- wheel 
steamboats  ply  between  Dawson  and  St.  Michael’s.  The 
pilots  know  the  snags,  bars,  and  channel-ways  of  the 
Yukon  as  well  as  those  of  the  Mississippi.  As  the  river 
in  its  broader  parts  has  a  current  of  only  three  miles  an 
hour,  the  powerful  engines  drive  the  boats  up  the  1,600 
miles  in  about  nine  days,  and  down  in  a  much  shorter  time. 
When  the  river  freezes,  the  sleigh  traffic  begins  over  the 
smooth  ice  at  its  edge,  both  from  St.  Michael’s  and  from 
the  upper  lakes  inside  the  passes. 

Marvelous  indeed  is  the  change  that  has  come  over  the 
township.  ‘  ‘  It  has,  ’  ’  says  a  writer  in  The  World ’s  W ork, 
speaking  of  the  year  1903,  4  ‘  a  splendid  system  of  water¬ 
works,  a  local  telephone  system,  and  long-distance  connec¬ 
tions  with  the  principal  mines;  telegraphic  communica¬ 
tion  with  the  world,  churches  of  every  denomination,  large 
Federal  and  Municipal  buildings  and  good  schools. 
The  streets  are  all  thoroughly  lighted  by  electricity. 
Lines  of  steamboats  along  the  wharves,  loading  and  un¬ 
loading,  and  steam  dredges  at  work  in  the  river,  give  an 
animated  aspect  to  the  water-front.  Three  years  ago  the 
inhabitants  of  Dawson  lived  principally  on  dried  and 
canned  meats  and  German  sliced  evaporated  potatoes* 


THE  ELDORADO  OF  THE  NORTH 


125 


To-day  fresh  meat  is  brought  in,  frozen  in  winter,  and  in 
refrigerator  cars  to  White  Horse  in  summer,  and  all  veg¬ 
etables  are  grown  in  market  gardens  near  by.  Nothing 
pleases  the  Dawson  citizen  more  than  to  entertain  a  skep¬ 
tical  visitor  from  the  South  at  table  with  lettuce,  aspara¬ 
gus,  green  peas,  or  celery,  cauliflower,  cabbage  and  car¬ 
rots,  according  to  the  season,  grown  in  his  own  rear- 
yard.  ’  ’ 1 

About  three  miles  up  the  Klondike  River  from  Dawson 
is  the  Bonanza  Creek,  the  scene  of  the  first  important 
finds.  Following  the  Bonanza  thirteen  miles  or  so  the 
Eldorado  Creek  is  struck.  The  trail  formerly  used  by 
the  miners  was  much  impeded  by  morasses,  through  which 
the  pedestrian  ploughed  his  way,  trusting  to  his  high 
waterproof  boots  to  keep  out  most  of  the  wet.  But  mat¬ 
ters  have  been  much  improved  since  then,  and  the  claim- 
owner  reaches  his  property  without  much  trouble.  In 
winter  sleighs  are  largely  used  over  the  streams,  up  which 
a  good  dog-team  will  make  the  journey  to  Eldorado  hi 
three  hours. 

Already  the  iron  horse  has  arrived.  In  June  1898  a 
syndicate  of  English  capitalists  began  work  on  what  is 
now  known  as  the  White  Pass  and  Yukon  Railway,  run¬ 
ning  from  Skagway  through  the  mountains  to  Lake  Ben- 
net.  Though  its  length  is  but  112  miles,  it  ranks  high  as 
an  engineering  achievement;  possibly  it  was  the  most 
difficult  bit  of  railway  work  ever  performed.  While  clear¬ 
ing  the  trail  for  the  track  the  navvies  had  to  collect  about 
2,000  dead  horses  into  heaps  and  burn  them  with  kerosene. 
Parts  of  the  railway  cost  $250,000  a  mile,  the  total  ex¬ 
penditure  reaching  $5,000,000.  So  much  needed  was  the 
road,  however,  that  the  first  two  years’  rumiing  showed 
profits  of  $2,000,000;  and  shares  which  at  one  time  had 
been  going  begging  at  $6.50  sold  at  $750  apiece. 

The  track-builder  is  hard  at  work  in  other  parts  of 
Alaska.  Prom  Nome  to  Anvil  Creek,  a  five-mile  line  has 
been  laid,  “  The  Wild  Goose  Road,”  which  in  spite  of  its 
title  has  also  proved  a  very  good  dividend  earner.  Sew- 

1  November,  1903. 


Vol.  IV  — 8 


126  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

ard  Peninsula,  on  which  Nome,  a  city  of  25,000  inhabit¬ 
ants,  is  built,  will  shortly  be  gridironed  by  railways  lead¬ 
ing  to  and  from  the  principal  gold-mines,  and  forming  the 
western  feeders  of  a  main  trans-Alaskan  system.  In 
1892  a  track  82  miles  long  stretched  from  West  Dawson  to 
Stewart  River,  from  which  point  to  the  Lakes  the  iron 
horse  will  probably  soon  be  running.  A  railway  has  also 
been  planned  from  Valdez,  the  most  northerly  ice-free 
port  of  Alaska,  to  Tanana  on  the  Yukon,  430  miles  away; 
and,  more  ambitious  still,  a  great  artery  running  south¬ 
wards  to  join  the  Canadian  trans-continental  rails. 
When  these  schemes  are  completed  it  will  be  possible  to 
travel  continuously  from  Ottawa  or  New  York  to  Nome, 
and  on  to  the  westernmost  point  of  Alaska,  whence  a  sub¬ 
marine  tunnel  under  the  Bering  Straits  would  provide  a 
still  longer  run  of  several  thousand  miles  to  Paris. 

Alaska  may  be  cold,  mosquito  infested,  fly-bitten,  but 
she  is  well  worth  the  $7,150,000  paid  b}^  the  United  States 
to  Russia  in  1867.  A  great  future  lies  before  her,  one  in 
which  the  gold  industry  may  eventually  recede  into  the 
background.  Yet  the  day  when  George  Carmack  lit  his 
campfire,  burnt  away  the  moss,  and  discovered  the  rich 
gravel,  is  that  from  which  the  new  era  will  be  dated.  As 
California  and  Australia  were  “  boomed  ”  by  their  gold 
rushes,  and  have  since  gained  the  larger  part  of  their 
wealth  from  agricultural  and  grazing  pursuits,  so  may 
the  Yukon  district  be  known  to  our  descendants  as  one  of 
the  great  wheat  and  timber-producing  countries  of  the 
world. 


THE  PERUVIAN  ANDES. 


BY 

A.  Gallenga. 

Mr.  Gallenga  was  an  English  journalist  who  traveled  far  and  wide 
in  the  service  of  “  The  Times  ”  newspaper.  He  wrote  “  The  Pearl 
of  the  Antilles,”  11  Country  Life  in  Piedmont/ ”  as  well  as  many  other 
books,  chiefly  of  travel. 

THE  mere  name  of  “  the  Ancles  ”  tasks  from  earliest 
youth  all  the  active  faculties  of  a  man’s  imagina¬ 
tion.  Passionately  fond,  as  I  always  was  from 
native  instinct,  of  mountain  scenery,  even  while  revelling 
on  the  beauties  of  the  Apennines,  the  Alps,  or  the  Pyre¬ 
nees,  I,  with  the  same  eagerness  with  which  Virgil,  from 
what  he  knew  of  his  Provincial  Mantua,  evolved  his  idea 
of  Metropolitan  Rome,  from  what  I  saw  near  home,  for 
many  years  endeavored  to  conjure  up  before  my  mind’s 
eye  the  image  of  what  might  be  this  remote  mountain 
chain,  which  was  then  held  to  be  the  loftiest,  and  which  is 
still  the  longest,  and  in  many  respects  the  greatest,  in  the 
world. 

Behold  me  now  at  home  in  the  Andes !  A  journey 

which  till  latelv  would  have  taken  months  of  toil  and  dan- 

%> 

ger  is  in  our  days  accomplished  by  a  few  hours  of  easy 
and  perfectly  safe  railway  traveling.  I  set  out  from 
Lima  on  a  Wednesday  afternoon  by  a  special  engine  on 
the  Oroya  line,  and  arrived  before  evening  at  the  Matu- 
cana  station,  101  kilometres  from  Callao,  and  2374  metres 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  I  proceeded  early  on  the  fol¬ 
lowing  morning  to  Chicla,  the  furthest  spot  which  the 
railway  has  hitherto  reached,  140  kilometres  from  Callao, 
and  3710  metres  above  the  sea  level.  At  Chicla  I  took 
horses,  and  by  a  four  or  five  hours’  ride  came  to  the  sum¬ 
mit  of  the  Pass,  169  kilometres  from  Callao,  and  at  a 
height  of  4896  metres  (about  16,300  English  feet)  above 

From  “  South  America.”  London. 

127 


128 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


the  sea,  and  838  feet  above  the  uppermost  3849  feet  long 
tunnel,  which  the  line  is  intended  to  reach,  and  to  which 
the  earthworks  have  already  been  extended.  I  traveled 
under  the  best  auspices.  I  had  with  me  three  wise  guides 
and  instructors,  M.  Malinowski,  a  Pole,  the  chief  engineer 
who  planned  and  executed  all  the  works  of  the  line;  Mr. 
Cilley,  its  general  superintendent;  and  Signor  Antonio 
Raimondi,  an  Italian,  more  learned  in  the  mineralogy, 
geography,  history  and  economy  of  the  country  than  any 
native  Peruvian.  These  gentlemen,  as  they  were  the 
most  useful,  so  they  proved  also  the  most  courteous, 
obliging,  and  genial  companions. 

The  Andes,  as  the  reader  knows,  constitute  an  uninter¬ 
rupted  Cordillera,  or  mountain  chain,  or  net  of  chains, 
stretching  all  along  the  South  American  Continent,  from 
Tierra  del  Fuego  and  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  in  the  ex¬ 
treme  south,  to  the  sea-board  of  Colombia  and  the  Carib¬ 
bean  Sea,  adjoining  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  in  the  north. 
Its  length  is  (from  latitude  10  deg.  N.  to  56  deg.  S.)  66 
degrees,  about  4500  miles;  and  it  runs  from  north  to 
south,  close  to  the  Western  or  Pacific  shore,  falling  on  this 
side  in  precipitous  ridges  and  through  narrow  rocky 
glens,  almost  close  to  the  water’s  edge,  while  it  slopes  with 
gentler  declivity  on  the  other  side,  forming  broad  valleys, 
and  traversing  vast  plains,  all  its  waters  joining  in  three 
great  streams,  the  Orinoco,  the  Amazon,  and  the  Parana 
or  Plate. 

Between  the  mountains  of  the  Old  World  and  those  of 
the  American  continent  there  is  this  main  difference,  that, 
while  most  of  the  great  chains  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Af¬ 
rica  run  from  east  to  west,  nearly  all  those  of  North  or 
South  America  run  fr.om  north  to  south.  By  this  peculi¬ 
arity  the  climate  and  the  very  aspect  of  the  two  continents 
are  in  a  great  measure  affected.  The  chains  that  sepa¬ 
rate  Central  from  Southern  Europe,  the  Pyrenees  and  the 
Alps  in  all  their  offshoots  as  far  as  the  Balkans,  act  as  so 
many  fencing  walls,  checking  the  impetuosity  of  the  winds 
and  tempering  the  heat  and  cold  of  each  region  so  as  to 
best  fit  it  to  the  exigencies  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  life 


THE  PERUVIAN  ANDES 


129 


which  it  was  destined  to  develop.  In  Italy,  for  instance, 
the  Alps  protect  Piedmont  and  Lombardy  from  the  ex¬ 
treme  rigor  of  German  frosts;  and  a  journey  from  Milan 
or  Turin  to  Genoa  in  the  winter  months,  owing  to  the  shel¬ 
ter  of  the  interjacent  Apennines,  is  often  suggestive  of  a 
sudden  transition  from  the  Poles  to  the  Tropics.  In 
Spain,  a  country  crossed  from  east  to  west  by  five  parallel 
sierras,  the  change  of  climate  is  equally  perceptible  at 
each  successive  zone  and  at  a  few  miles  ’  interval,  and  the 
progress  of  heat  and  cold  does  thus  pretty  fairly  keep 
pace  with  the  scale  of  latitude. 

Here,  in  this  Southern  continent,  the  same  wind  from 
the  South  Pole  blows  throughout  the  year,  fresh  and  keen, 
all  along  the  coast ;  so  fresh  and  keen  that  on  the  sea  or 
close  to  it  the  vertical  sun  of  the  Tropics  loses  all  its 
power  even  at  noon,  and  the  long  equatorial  night  has  a 
chill  which  renders  it  unsafe  as  well  as  uncomfortable  to 
sleep  in  the  open,  and  unwise  and  almost  impossible  to 
dispense  with  heavy  blankets. 

There  is  a  warm  and  moist,  generally  unhealthy,  rainy 
season  in  the  West  Indies,  along  that  part  of  the  coast 
which  bears  the  name  of  the  Spanish  Main,  and,  as  a  rule, 
wherever  the  influence  of  unimpeded  sea  air  is  felt.  But 
on  this  western  coast  of  South  America  the  vapors  that 
would  be  wafted  up  to  it  from  the  Pacific  are  met  by  the 
perennial  breezes  which,  as  I  said,  come  up  from  the  Pole, 
and  they  are  driven  upwards  till  they  reach  the  summit  of 
the  mountain  wall  of  the  Andes,  where,  condensed  by  the 
cold  of  that  lofty  region,  they  fall  in  copious  rain,  drench¬ 
ing  and  fertilizing  the  eastern  water-shed,  passing  over 
the  western  slope,  and  leaving  it  untouched,  arid,  barren, 
and  desolate.  For  the  six  winter  months  in  the  year, 
what  in  the  West  Indies  is  the  rainy  season  is  here  the 
season  of  clouds  and  fogs.  We  have  the  constant  threat 
of  rain  with  hardly  ever  a  drop  of  it,  and  the  sun,  that 
breaks  out  in  pale  glimpses  towards  noon,  is  seen  but  not 
felt.  This  is  especially  the  case  with  Peru,  the  coast  of 
which,  projecting  westward  in  all  its  length  from  Arica 
to  Paita,  is  more  immediately  exposed  to  the  polar  wind 


130 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


and  more  unmercifully  searched  and  blighted  by  its  blast. 
That  its  climate,  as  a  tropical  one,  may  be  all  the  better 
for  it,  is  very  possible  ;  and,  indeed,  there  is  no  fault  to  be 
found  with  it  on  the  score  of  human  health;  but  it  is  dull 
and  gloomy  and  doomed  to  perpetual  drought.  There  is 
no  moisture  or  dew  in  the  land,  and  consequently  no  vege¬ 
tation,  or  only  that  which  is  fostered  by  the  scanty  rills 
creeping  through  the  sand  and  stone  of  their  narrow 
glens,  and  only  rushing  dowm,  torrent-fashion,  when  the 
thaw  of  the  perpetual  snows  of  the  Cordillera  sets  in  in 
good  earnest  in  the  summer  months. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  mountains,  across  the  Cordil¬ 
lera,  or  rather  the  several  parallel  lines  of  Cordilleras, 
and  across  the  table-land  which  spreads  far  and  wide  be¬ 
tween  them,  one  comes  to  the  so-called  “  Montana or 
Eastern  slope  of  the  Andes,  “  nearly/’  as  it  has  been  de¬ 
scribed,  ‘  ‘  an  unknown,  impenetrable  forest,  with  rose¬ 
wood,  mahogany,  calisaya,  rubber  trees,  coffee,  cocoa,  and 
coca  bushes,  a  land  of  unequalled  fertility,  drained  by  the 
principal  sources  of  the  Amazon. 9 1 

The  railway  which  comes  up  from  Callao  to  Lima  runs 
along  the  banks  of  the  Rimac,  a  mountain  stream  the  val¬ 
ley  of  which,  after  leaving  the  last  town  bridge,  gradually 
widens  and  expands  into  a  plain,  blooming  with  rich  trop¬ 
ical  vegetation,  and  cultivated  in  slovenly  patches  by  the 
kitchen  gardeners  who  supply  the  capital  with  fruit  and 
vegetables.  Before  we  reached  Santa  Clara,  29  kilome¬ 
tres  from  Callao,  we  passed  a  cotton  plantation  and  a 
sugar-mill.  As  far  as  Chosica,  55  kilometres  from  Callao, 
the  line  ascends  straight  and  smooth,  gradually  attaining 
a  height  of  895  metres.  The  hills  close  in  on  all  sides, 
every  trace  of  vegetation,  except  on  or  very  near  the  bed 
of  the  river,  disappears,  and  the  valley  assumes  that  bare, 
bleak,  savage  aspect  that  characterizes  it  to  the  very  sum¬ 
mit.  The  mountains  are  huge  rugged  masses,  mostly 
round,  and  all  very  steep  and  precipitous,  yet  seldom  per¬ 
pendicular,  and  their  sides  are  here  and  there  seamed 
with  deep  chasms,  called  quebrados,  bearing  some  re¬ 
semblance  to  dry  watercourses,  though  few  of  them  can 


THE  PERUVIAN  ANDES 


131 


boast  a  thread  of  water;  and  they  must  be  the  result  of 
convulsions,  floods,  or  eruptions  of  which  there  hardly  re¬ 
mains  any  distinct  and  authentic  account  in  men’s  mem¬ 
ory.  Near  the  opening  of  many  of  these  glens  one  can 
descry  ruins  of  buildings,  hamlets,  or  cemeteries,  very 
puzzling  to  the  ingenuity  of  archaeologists,  but  which  seem 
to  have  belonged  to  native  races  in  existence  before  the 
period  of  the  Incas,  when  the  western  slope  of  these  moun¬ 
tains  is  supposed  to  have  harbored  a  larger  population 
than  it  ever  afterwards  numbered.  A  little  above  Cho- 
sica  the  valley  divides  into  two  branches,  one  of  which, 
on  our  left,  bears  the  name  of  St.  Eulalia,  while  the  one 
we  followed,  on  the  right,  is  the  main  valley,  and  its  river 
is  called  the  Rimac  to  the  summit.  Soon  after  entering 
the  narrow  dell,  at  San  Pedro,  Sta.  Ana,  and  Cocachacra, 
begin  the  difficulties  the  engineer’s  art  had  to  contend 
with.  .  .  . 

The  general  opinion  now  is  that  wherever  a  man  has 
made  a  path  he  can  make  a  railway.  But  man’s  path 
across  a  mountain-chain  usually  follows  the  course  of  the 
waters,  and  as  a  path— the  shortest  across  the  Andes— 
from  time  immemorial  led  up  from  Lima  to  the  summit 
along  the  Rimac,  it  was  along  the  Rimac  that  the  locomo¬ 
tive  had  to  run  up.  But  the  Rimac,  which  has  only  a 
gradual  fall  of  3  to  5  per  cent,  in  its  lower  course,  comes 
down  in  cataracts  of  10  or  12  per  cent,  in  the  upper  region, 
and  the  valley  is  throughout  so  narrow  and  abrupt  as 
barely  to  make  room  for  more  than  the  stream  and  the 
path  between  the  huge  mountain  masses  that  bulge  and 
crowd  and  tower  upon  it  on  all  sides. 

To  satisfy  one’s  self  that  the  works  through  which  such 
obstacles  were  overcome  are  truly  Titanic,  it  will  be 
enough  to  state  that,  while  from  Callao  to  Oroya  the  dis¬ 
tance  in  a  straight  line  is  only  145  kilometres,  the  railway 
follows  a  course  of  219  kilometres,  74  of  these  being  thus 
taken  up  by  the  windings  and  turnings,  the  zig-zags  and 
tourniquets,  the  bridges  and  viaducts,  the  straight, 
curved,  and  horse-shoe-shaped  tunnels— 61  tunnels— to 
which  the  engineer  had  recourse  to  advance  on  his  heav- 


132  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

enward  path.  And  from  St.  Bartolome  to  Oroya,  where 
the  direct  distance  was  only  77  kilometres,  but  where  the 
difficulties  to  be  overcome  were  most  formidable,  the  rail¬ 
way  has  to  go  over  144  kilometres  of  ground,  nearly 
double  the  extent  of  the  footway  having  to  be  run  over 
by  the  rail  in  obedience  to  the  necessities  of  the  ground 
itself.  Be  it  observed  also  that  the  iron  road  is  an  unin¬ 
terrupted  upward  slope  from  end  to  end,  the  gradients 
being  seldom  less  than  three,  and  never  more  than  4  per 
cent.;  so  that,  although  the  ordinary  trains  from  Callao 
to  Chicla  employ  seven  or  eight  hours  to  get  over  the  140 
kilometres7  distance,  a  special  engine,  or  a  “  handcar77 
without  engine,  can  run  down  from  Chicla  to  Callao  in 
little  more  than  two  hours,  notwithstanding  frequent 
stoppages  at  swing-tables  on  some  of  the  turnings,  going 
at  the  rate  of  50  to  60  miles  an  hour  “  in  perfect  safety.77 
This  descent  I  achieved  myself,  on  my  journey  back,  all 
the  way  from  Chicla  to  Matucana,  under  the  pilotage  of 
Mr.  Gilley;  and  in  spite  of  all  assurance  of  4 ‘perfect 
safety, 7  7  a  somewhat  nervous  feat  it  seemed  to  me. 

The  4  ‘  handcar, 7  7  a  light,  small,  and  low  railway  truck, 
with  two  low-backed  seats  and  room  for  two  in  each,  mov¬ 
ing  with  the  ease  of  a  chariot  in  the  so-called  “  Montagnes 
Busses,77  upon  a  gentle  push  from  behind  acquires,  after 
a  few  yards7  slope,  a  momentum  of  which  it  would  be 
awful  to  foretell  the  consequences  were  it  not  for  the 
‘  ‘  brakes  7  7  with  which  it  is  supplied  like  an  engine,  and 
by  which  the  driver  has  power  to  pull  up  in  a  few  seconds 
and  within  a  few  yards  of  any  point  he  may  reach  in  his 
headlong  career.  But  the  driver  himself,  being  human, 
delights  in  that  entrancing  rapidity  of  motion,  and  is  soon 
almost  unconsciously  swayed  by  the  fiery  instincts  of  a 
racing  horse.  Away  you  go  along  this  curve,  away  you 
tear  around  that  corner,  away  you  rush  and  dash  from 
turning  to  turning,  through  this  cutting  and  through  that 
tunnel,  with  your  face  barely  one  foot  from  the  hard  jag¬ 
ged  rocks  of  the  cutting  on  your  right,  and  your  knees 
barely  one  foot  from  the  brink  of  the  dizzy  precipice  on 
your  left;  down  you  plunge  into  the  pitch-dark  tunnel, 


THE  PERUVIAN  ANDES 


133 


yourself  without  a  light,  without  a  “  cow-catcher,  ’ ’  with¬ 
out  a  bell  or  whistle  to  scare  away  the  stray  cattle  that 
often  run  to  it  for  shelter ;  away  you  go,  neck  or  nothing, 
till  all  your  terrors  are  shaken  from  you,  and  you  become 
a  convert  to  the  “  perfect  safety  ”  doctrine  ;  or  till,  with  a 
fatalist’s  sullen  courage,  you  set  your  teeth  hard,  you  fold 
your  arms  on  your  breast,  and  almost  urge  the  driver  to 
more  speed,  as  if  thinking  that  if  there  is  to  be  a  smash  it 
may  just  as  well  be  now  as  by-and-by. 

Not  a  little  of  the  savage  grandeur  of  the  scenery 
through  which  the  way  is  carved  would  pall  upon  us  from 
its  sameness  were  it  not  for  the  sense  of  the  power  man’s 
genius  has  put  forth  in  its  contest  with  the  most  porten- 
tious  works  of  nature.  Here  you  have  the  gallant  little 
special  engine  rattling  up  at  full  speed  against  a  maze  of 
huge  rocks,  where  you  absolutely  see  no  issue,  when  she 
suddenly  backs,  and  threads  her  way  on  a  higher  zig-zag 
path  on  the  right,  then  on  another  still  higher  zig-zag  on 
the  left,  and  so  on  for  four  or  five  zig-zags  and  as  many 
tunnels  one  above  the  other  on  the  same  mountain-side, 
the  track  which  you  are  to  follow  with  all  its  windings  and 
turnings  and  its  tunnel-mouths  being  visible  before  you 
and  above  you  at  an  immeasurable  height,  and  that  which 
you  have  just  left  yawning  in  your  rear  at  an  unfathom¬ 
able  depth  beneath;  and  you  feel  that  your  progress  is 
along  an  immense  staircase,  of  which  the  invisible  summit 
may  reach  heaven  and  the  bottom  be  lost  in  the  abyss. 

From  one  mountain  to  the  other  you  cross  over  fearful 
chasms  like  that  of  V errugas,  where  the  glen  and  torrent 
of  that  name  are  spanned  over  by  an  iron  bridge  525ft.  in 
length,  at  a  height  of  252ft. ;  or  like  the  gap  of  Infernillo, 
where  the  main  stream  breaks  through  two  perpendicular 
walls  of  solid  rock,  1,500ft.  high,  the  train  crossing  from 
wall  to  wall,  out  of  the  tunnel  on  one  side  into  the  tunnel 
on  the  opposite  side,  over  a  bridge  160ft.  long,  suspended 
in  mid-air  165ft.  above  the  churning  cataract. 

The  very  swiftness  with  which  you  are  whirled  along 
that  dismal  mountain  scenery  doubtless  adds  to  its  grand¬ 
eur  by  crowding  together  the  objects  in  a  kind  of  phantas- 


i 


134  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

magorial  confusion,  and  throwing  in  that  element  of  ter¬ 
ror  which  lies  at  the  root  of  all  sublimity.  When  we 
alighted  at  Chicla,  and  taking  to  the  saddle  we  proceeded 
at  a  foot’s  pace  to  the  summit,  I  was  better  able  to  ana¬ 
lyze  my  sensations,  and  to  take  a  more  sober  view  of  the 
real  character  of  this  Andean  region.  The  mountains 
around  me  were,  and  had  been  all  along  my  progress,  cer¬ 
tain^  very  high;  but  in  proportion  as  they  rose  I  also 
reached  a  greater  altitude ;  the  walls  of  rock  that  seemed 
to  crush  me  on  all  sides  were  more  or  less  of  the  same  di¬ 
mensions,  and  if  now  and  then  through  that  wilderness  of 
cliffs  and  crags  and  ravines  I  caught  here  a  glimpse  and 
there  another  of  the  loftiest  peaks,  there  was  little  either 
in  their  size  or  shape  to  appall  the  senses  or  to  stir  the 
imagination.  It  was  only  rock,  mostly  bare  gray  rock 
everywhere  without  relief  or  foreground;  volcanic  forma¬ 
tion,  solid  at  the  core,  slightly  crumbling  on  the  surface ; 
round  shapes,  steep  enough  to  be  almost  inaccessible,  yet 
only  in  rare  instances  assuming  the  picturesqueness  of 
bold  perpendicular  lines. 

Even  on  the  summit,  near  the  limit  of  perpetual  snows, 
and  where  the  ground  lay  somewhat  more  open  before  me, 
the  scene  was  rather  bleak  than  grand ;  the  mountains  of 
which  I  trod  the  skirts  did  not  rise  more  than  2000ft.  or 
3000ft.  above  me;  snow  lay  in  the  defts  between  their 
aiguilles  and  pinnacles  of  rock,  and  a  great  sheet  of  ice,  a 
veritable  glacier,  slid  down  the  straight  slope  of  one  of 
them ;  while  in  others,  further  off,  the  snow  lay  in  a  com¬ 
pact  mass  as  far  as  eye  could  reach;  but  there  had  been 
nothing  in  my  progress  to  prepare  me  for  the  wildness 
of  that  upper  region  by  the  contrast  of  the  amenity  of  the 
lower  grounds.  From  the  moment  I  had  left  Lima  I  had 
seen  nothing  but  rock;  here  I  saw  nothing  but  rock  and 
snow.  The  fringe  of  green  vegetation,  which  as  I  said, 
lined  the  banks  of  the  stream  and  a  few  fortunate  glens 
through  which  a  rill  trickled,  dwindled  and  withered  at  a 
height  of  9,000  or  10,000ft.  The  little  station  gardens, 
coaxed  up  with  some  care  at  Chosica,  San  Bartolome, 
Matucana,  etc.,  ceased  altogether  at  Chicla,  for  it  is  the 


THE  PERUVIAN  ANDES 


135 


peculiar  misfortune  of  tlie  Andes  on  this  western  side 
that  on  the  skirts,  near  the  sea,  and  for  miles  inland, 
where  no  rain  falls,  nothing  grows;  while  on  the  upper 
grounds,  where  sometimes  rain  is  plentiful,  the  air  is  too 
keen  and  cold  for  even  the  most  dwarfish  and  most  stunted 
vegetation  to  thrive.  The  mountain  on  this  side  is  a  wil¬ 
derness,  not  indeed  without  its  oases,  but  these  are  not 
sufficiently  frequent  and  conspicuous  to  redeem  the  pre¬ 
vailing  barrenness;  and  the  traveller,  fatigued  by  the 
dreary  sameness,  is  compelled  to  declare  that  even  if  the 
Andes  can  at  their  summits  boast  twice  the  loftiness  and 
real  sublimity  of  the  Alps,  they  have  not,  on  their  western 
slope,  one-tentli  of  the  variety,  of  the  beauty,  and  loveli¬ 
ness  of  the  Alpine  valleys. 

One  thought  forced  itself  on  my  mind  as  I  gazed  round 
the  unmitigated  ruggedness  of  that  portentous  mountain 
region.  Mr.  Prescott  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  visited  the 
country  of  which  he  so  eloquently  wrote  the  history.  Had 
he  even  been  on  the  spot,  he  was  blind,  and  his  infirmity 
would  in  a  great  measure  have  robbed  him  of  any  idea 
that  the  forbidding  aspect  of  the  country  would  otherwise 
have  inevitably  suggested— the  idea  that  of  all  the  won¬ 
ders  of  heroism  which  signalized  the  enterprise  of  the 
conquerors  of  Peru,  by  far  the  greatest  was  their  mere 
march  across  the  country— the  wonder  that  warriors 
weighed  down  by  a  cumbrous  and  ponderous  suit  of 
armor,  mounted  on  steeds  also  caparisoned  with  half  a 
ton  of  brass  and  iron,  should  have  gone  for  weeks  and 
months  up  and  down  these  steep  Andean  valleys;  that 
they  should  have  threaded  their  way  through  these  laby¬ 
rinths  of  shepherds  ’  paths,  never  before  trodden  by  shoe- 
leather  or  horse ’s  hoof,  where  to  all  appearances  roads  by 
day  and  shelter  by  night  were  hardly  anywhere  to  be  had 
for  scores  and  scores  of  miles  round,  and  in  defiance  of  a 
hostile  population,  which,  however  naked  and  unwarlike, 
even  if  arrows  and  javelins  were  of  no  avail,  could  easily 
at  every  step  have  crushed  that  mere  handful  of  men  by 
simply  dropping  on  their  heads  the  loosened  masses  of 
rock  everywhere  hanging  on  the  brow  of  the  hills  above 


136 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


the  few  inches  of  ground  of  the  glen,  where  it  was  possible 
for  the  venturous  invader  to  rest  his  foot !  .  .  . 

The  country  on  the  ascent  from  Arequipa  to  the  crest 
of  the  Peruvian  Andes  at  Vincomaya  exhibits  everywhere 
the  same  barren  and  forbidding  aspect ;  but  the  summit  it¬ 
self  is  almost  level,  and  not  far  beyond  it  are  some  of 
those  lonely  little  lakelets  or  tarns,  which  on  mountain- 
crests  frequently  mark  the  parting  of  the  waters.  The 
further  advance  lies  along  a  broad,  open  valley,  through 
which  runs  the  Rio  Sucliez,  and  this  gradually  merges  into 
the  great  table-land,  many  hundred  miles  in  extent,  of 
which  the  Titicaca  Lake  is  the  centre.  This  lake  may  be 
considered,  both  geographically  and  historically,  the  heart 
of  Peru.  It  is  about  180  miles  in  length  and  60  miles  in 
its  greatest  width,  its  surface  approaching  in  extent  that 
of  Ontario,  Erie,  and  other  North  American  lakes.  It  is 
encompassed  all  around  by  rocky  mountains  of  no  great 
elevation,  above  which  here  and  there  all-round  views  are 
caught  of  the  snowy  Cordilleras.  The  waters  flowing  on  all 
sides  into  this  beautiful  reservoir  have  only  one  outlet,  the 
Desaguadero  or  Emissary,  which  runs  to  the  south-east 
into  another  lake  (the  Poo-po  Lake),  beyond  which  its 
waters  are  supposed  to  be  lost  in  some  subterranean  chan¬ 
nel,  and  hence  to  find  their  way  somewhere  into  the  Pa¬ 
cific  Ocean.  These  lakes  have  not  yet  been  property  and 
thoroughly  surveyed,  and  hardly  any  maps  or  charts  ex¬ 
ist  on  which  safe  reliance  may  be  laid.  The  very  bound¬ 
aries  between  Peru  and  Bolivia,  each  of  which  claims 
possession  of  half  the  lake  and  its  coasts,  are  imperfectly 
defined  and  perpetually  shifting,  neither  State  keeping 
Custom-houses  or  military  posts  on  many  of  its  ports.  I 
crossed  the  lake  from  Puno  to  Chililaya,  a  distance  of  117 
miles,  by  one  of  the  elegant  little  steamers  of  the  Speedie 
Company,  and  returned  by  another  boat  on  a  circumnavi¬ 
gation  voyage,  touching  at  Desaguadero  and  other  points 
of  great  interest,  after  extending  my  journey  by  land 
across  the  table-land  from  Chillilaya  to  La  Paz,  a  distance 
of  48  miles,  by  a  coach  drawn  by  spanking  teams  of  six 
and  even  eight  horses,  all  admirably  appointed. 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE 


BY 


Jules  Verne.  * 


Jules  Verne  was  more  than  a  writer  of  those  numerous  romances 
which  young  folks  love  so  well.  He  wrote  also  several  plays  and 
was  thoroughly  at  home  in  the  literature  of  exploration  and  discovery, 
on  which  subject  he  wrote  several  interesting  volumes.  The  Baron  de 
Bougainville  was  the  son  of  the  famous  first  French  circumnavigator 
who  was  made  a  Senator  and  a  Count  of  the  Empire  by  Napoleon  I. 

It  is  particularly  interesting  and  instructive  to  follow  the  story  of 
this  expedition  with  a  map  of  the  world  before  one  —  marking  out  the 
route.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  voyage  was  practically  a  circumnavi¬ 
gation  of  the  globe. 

HE  expedition,  the  command  of  which  was  entrusted 


to  Baron  de  Bougainville,  was,  strictly  speaking, 


*  neither  a  scientific  voyage  nor  a  campaign  of  dis¬ 
covery.  Its  chief  purpose  was  to  unfurl  the  French  flag 
in  the  extreme  East,  and  to  impress  upon  the  govern¬ 
ments  of  that  region  the  intention  of  France  to  protect 
her  nationalities  and  her  interests,  everywhere  and  at  all 
times.  The  chief  instructions  given  to  the  commander 
were  that  he  was  to  convey  to  the  sovereign  of  Cochin- 
China  a  letter  from  the  King,  together  with  some  pres¬ 
ents,  to  be  placed  on  hoard  the  frigate  Thetis. 

On  the  2d  of  March,  1824,  the  Thetis  quitted  the  roads  at 
Brest  to  take  up  at  Bourbon  her  companion,  the  Esper- 
ance,  which,  having  started  some  time  before,  had  set  sail 
for  Rio  de  Janeiro.  A  short  stay  at  Teneriffe,  where  the 
Thetis  was  only  able  to  purchase  some  poor  wine  and  a 
very  small  quantity  of  the  provisions  needed;  a  view  of 
the  Cape  Verd  islands  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  the 
distance,  and  a  hunt  for  the  fabulous  island  of  Saxem- 
berg,  and  some  rocks  no  less  fictitious,  were  the  only  in- 

From  “  The  Great  Explorers  of  the  Ninetenth  Century.’’  By  Jules 
Verne,  translated  from  the  French  by  N.  D’ Anvers.  London  and 
New  York. 


137 


138 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


cidents  of  the  voyage  to  Bourbon,  where  the  Esperance 
had  already  arrived. 

Bourbon  was  at  this  time  so  familiar  a  point  with  the 
navigators  that  there  was  little  to  be  said  about  it,  when 
its  two  open  roads  of  St.  Denis  and  St.  Paul  had  been 
mentioned.  St.  Denis,  the  capital,  situated  on  the  north 
of  Bourbon,  and  at  the  extremity  of  a  sloping  table-land, 
was,  properly  speaking,  merely  a  large  town,  without  en¬ 
closure  or  walls,  and  each  house  in  it  was  surrounded  by 
a  garden.  There  were  no  public  buildings  or  places  of 
interest  worth  mentioning  except  the  governor’s  palace, 
situated  in  such  a  position  as  to  command  a  view  of  the 
whole  road;  the  botanic  garden  and  the  “  Jardin  de 
Naturalisation,”  which  dates  from  1817.  The  former, 
which  is  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  contains  some  beauti¬ 
ful  walks,  unfortunately  but  little  frequented,  and  it  is 
admirably  kept.  The  eucalyptus,  the  giant  of  the  Austra¬ 
lian  forests,  the  Phormium  tenax,  the  New  Zealand  hemp- 
plant,  the  casuarina  (the  pine  of  Madagascar),  the  bao¬ 
bab,  with  its  trunk  of  prodigious  size,  the  carambolas,  the 
zapota,  the  vanilla,  combined  to  beautify  this  garden, 
which  was  refreshed  by  streams  of  sparkling  water.  The 
second,  upon  the  brow  of  a  hill,  formed  of  terraces  rising 
one  above  the  other,  to  which  several  brooklets  give  life 
and  fertility,  was  specially  devoted  to  the  acclimatization 
of  European  trees  and  plants.  The  apple,  peach,  apricot, 
cherry,  and  pear-trees,  which  have  thriven  well,  have  al¬ 
ready  supplied  the  colony  with  valuable  shoots.  The  vine 
was  also  grown  in  this  garden,  together  with  the  tea- 
plant,  and  several  rarer  species,  amongst  which  Bougain¬ 
ville  noted  with  delight  the  “  Laurea  argentea,”  with  its 
bright  leaves. 

On  the  9th  of  June  the  two  vessels  left  the  roads  of  St. 
Denis.  After  having  doubled  the  shoals  of  La  Fortune 
and  Saya  de  Malha,  and  passed  off  the  Seychelles,  whilst 
among  the  atolls  to  the  south  of  the  Maidive  islands 
which  are  level  with  the  surface  of  the  water  and  covered 
with  bushy  trees  ending  in  a  cluster  of  cocoas,  they 
sighted  the  island  of  Ceylon  and  the  Coromandel  coast, 
and  cast  anchor  before  Pondicherry. 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  139 


This  part  of  India  is  far  from  answering  to  the  u  en¬ 
chantress  ”  idea  which  the  dithyrambic  descriptions  of 
writers  who  have  celebrated  its  marvels  have  led  Euro¬ 
peans  to  form.  The  number  of  public  buildings  and 
monuments  at  Pondicherry  will  scarcely  bear  counting, 
and  when  one  has  visited  the  more  curious  of  the  pagodas, 
and  the  “  boilers,”  whose  only  recommendation  is  their 
utility,  there  is  nothing  very  interesting,  except  the 
novelty  of  the  scenes  met  with  at  every  turn.  .  The  town 
is  divided  into  two  well-defined  quarters.  The  one  called 
the  “  white  town,”  dull  and  deserted  in  spite  of  its  coquet¬ 
tish-looking  buildings,  and  the  far  more  interesting 
“  black  town,”  with  its  bazaars,  its  jugglers,  its  massive 
pagodas,  and  the  attractive  dances  of  the  bayaderes.  .  .  . 

The  Thetis  and  the  Esperance  quitted  the  roadstead  of 
Pondicherry  on  the  30th  of  July,  crossed  the  Sea  of  Ben¬ 
gal,  sighted  the  islands  of  Nicobar  and  Pulo-Penang  with 
its  free  port  capable  of  holding  300  ships  at  a  time.  They 
then  entered  the  Straits  of  Malacca  and  remained  in  the 
Dutch  port  of  that  name  from  the  24th  to  the  26th  of 
July,  to  repair  damages  sustained  by  the  Esperance,  so 
that  she  might  hold  out  as  far  as  Manilla.  The  inter¬ 
course  of  the  explorers  with  the  resident  and  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  generally  were  all  the  more  pleasant  that  it  was 
confirmed  by  banquets  given  on  land  and  on  board  the 
Thetis  in  honor  of  the  kings  of  France  and  the  Nether¬ 
lands.  The  Dutch  were  expecting  soon  to  cede  this  sta¬ 
tion  to  the  English,  and  this  cession  took  place  shortly 
afterward.  It  must  be  added,  with  regard  to  Malacca, 
that  in  point  of  fertility  of  soil,  pleasantness  of  situation 
and  facilities  for  obtaining  all  really  necessary  supplies, 
it  was  superior  to  its  rivals. 

Bougainville  set  out  again  on  August  26th,  and  was 
tossed  about  by  head-winds,  and  troubled  alike  by  calms 
and  storms  during  the  remainder  of  his  passage  through 
the  straits.  As  these  latitudes  were  more  frequented  than 
any  others  by  Malay  pirates,  the  commandant  placed 
sentries  on  the  watch  and  took  all  precautions  against 
surprise,  although  his  force  was  strong  enough  to  be 


140 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


above  fearing  any  enemy.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  to 
see  boats  manned  by  a  hundred  seamen,  and  more  than 
one  merchant-ship  had  recently  fallen  a  prey  to  these  un¬ 
molested  and  incorrigible  corsairs.  The  squadron,  how¬ 
ever,  saw  nothing  to  awaken  any  suspicions,  and  con¬ 
tinued  its  course  to  Singapore. 

The  population  of  this  town  is  a  curious  mixture  of 
races,  and  our  travelers  met  with  Europeans  engaged  in 
the  chief  branches  of  commerce ;  Armenian  and  Arabian 
merchants,  and  Chinese;  some  planters,  others  following 
the  various  trades  demanded  by  the  requirements  of  the 
population.  The  Malays,  who  seemed  out  of  place  in  an 
advancing  civilization,  either  led  a  life  of  servitude,  or 
slept  away  their  time  in  indolence  and  misery  whilst  the 
Hindus,  expelled  from  their  country  for  crime,  practiced 
the  indescribable  trades  which  in  all  great  cities  alone 
save  the  scum  from  dying  of  starvation.  It  was  only  in 
1819  that  the  English  procured  from  the  Malayan  Sultan, 
of  Johore,  the  right  to  settle  in  the  town  of  Singapore  ; 
and  the  little  village  in  which  they  established  themselves 
then  numbered  but  150  inhabitants,  although,  thanks  to 
Sir  Stamford  Raffles,  a  town  soon  rose  on  the  site  of  the 
unpretending  cabins  of  the  natives.  By  a  wise  stroke  of 
policy  all  custom-duties  were  abolished;  and  the  natural 
advantages  of  the  new  city,  with  its  extensive  and  secure 
port  were  supplemented  and  perfected  by  the  hand  of 
man. 

Indeed,  Singapore  was  simply  one  large  warehouse,  to 
which  Madras  sent  cotton  cloth;  Calcutta,  opium;  Su¬ 
matra,  pepper ;  Java,  arrack  and  spices ;  Manila,  sugar  and 
arrack;  all  forthwith  despatched  to  Europe,  China,  Siam, 
etc.  Of  public  buildings  there  appeared  to  be  none. 
There  were  no  stores,  no  careening-wharves,  no  building- 
yards,  no  barracks,  and  the  visitors  noticed  but  one  small 
church  for  native  converts. 

The  squadron  resumed  its  voyage  on  the  2d  of  Sep¬ 
tember,  and  reached  the  harbor  of  Cavite  without  any 
mishap.  Meanwhile,  M.  du  Camper,  commander  of  the 
Esperance,  who  had,  during  a  residence  of  some  years, 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  141 

become  acquainted  with  the  principal  inhabitants,  was 
ordered  to  go  to  Manila,  that  he  might  inform  the  Gover¬ 
nor-General  of  the  Philippines  of  the  arrival  of  the  frig¬ 
ates,  the  reasons  of  their  visit,  etc.,  and  at  the  same  time 
gauge  his  feelings  toward  them,  and  form  some  idea  of 
the  reception  the  French  might  expect.  The  recent  inter¬ 
vention  of  France  in  the  affairs  of  Spain  placed  them 
indeed  in  a  very  delicate  position  with  the  then  governor, 
Don  Juan  Antonio  Martinez,  who  had  been  nominated  to 
his  post  by  the  very  Cortez  which  had  just  been  over¬ 
thrown  by  their  government.  The  fears  of  the  com¬ 
mandant,  however,  were  not  confirmed,  for  he  met  with 
the  warmest  kindness  and  most  cordial  co-operation  from 
the  Spanish  authorities. 

Cavite  bay,  where  the  vessels  cast  anchor,  was  con¬ 
stantly  encumbered  with  mud,  but  it  was  the  chief  port  in 
the  Philippine  islands,  and  there  the  Spaniards  owned  a 
very  well  supplied  arsenal  in  which  worked  Indians  from 
the  surrounding  districts,  who  though  skillful  and  intelli¬ 
gent,  were  excessively  lazy.  Whilst  the  Thetis  was  being 
sheathed,  and  the  extensive  repairs  necessary  to  the 
Esperance  were  being  carried  out,  the  clerks  and  officers 
were  at  Manila,  seeing  about  the  supply  of  provisions  and 
cordage.  The  latter,  which  was  made  of  “  abaca,”  the 
fibre  of  a  banana, (  vulgarly  called  “  Manila  hemp,”  al¬ 
though  recommended  on  account  of  its  great  elasticity, 
was  not  of  much  use  on  board  ship.  The  delay  at  Manila 
was  rendered  very  disagreeable  by  earthquakes  and 
typhoons,  which  are  of  constant  occurrence  there.  On 
October  24tli  there  was  an  earthquake  of  such  violence 
that  the  governor,  troops,  and  a  portion  of  the  people 
were  compelled  hastily  to  leave  the  town,  and  the  loss 
was  estimated  at  120,000  lires.  Many  houses  were  thrown 
down,  eight  people  were  buried  in  the  ruins,  and  many 
others  injured.  Scarcely  had  the  inhabitants  begun  to 
breathe  freely  again,  when  a  frightful  typhoon  came  to 
complete  the  panic.  It  lasted  only  part  of  the  night  of 
October  31st,  and  the  next  day,  when  the  sun  rose,  it  might 
have  been  looked  upon  as  a  mere  nightmare  had  not  the 

Vol.  IV  — 9 


142  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

melancholy  sight  of  fields  laid  waste,  and  of  the  harbor 
with  six  ships  lying  on  their  sides,  and  all  the  others  at 
anchor,  almost  entirely  disabled,  testified  to  the  reality  of 
the  disaster.  All  around  the  town  the  country  was 
devastated,  the  crops  were  ruined,  the  trees  —  even  the 
largest  of  them  —  violently  shaken,  the  village  destroyed. 
It  was  a  heart-rending  spectacle.  The  Esperance  had  its 
main-mast  and  mizzen-mast  lifted  several  feet  above  deck, 
and  its  barricadings  were  carried  off;  the  Thetis,  more 
fortunate  than  its  companion,  escaped  almost  uninjured 
in  the  dreadful  tempest. 

The  laziness  of  the  workpeople,  and  the  great  number 
of  holidays  in  which  they  indulge,  early  decided  Bougain¬ 
ville  to  part  for  a  time  from  his  convoy,  and  on  Decem¬ 
ber  12th,  he  set  sail  for  Cochin-China.  Before  following 
the  French  to  the  little-frequented  shores  of  that  country, 
however,  we  must  survey  with  them  Manila  and  its  en¬ 
virons.  The  Bav  of  Manila  is  one  of  the  most  extensive 

%/ 

and  beautiful  in  the  world;  numerous  fleets  might  find 
anchorage  in  it;  its  two  channels  were  not  yet  closed 
to  foreign  vessels,  and  in  1798  two  English  frigates  had 
been  allowed  to  pass  through  them  and  carry  off  numer¬ 
ous  vessels  under  the  very  guns  of  the  town.  The  horizon 
is  shut  in  by  a  barrier  of  mountains,  ending  on  the  south 
of  the  Taal,  a  volcano  now  almost  extinct,  but  the  erup¬ 
tions  of  which  have  often  caused  frightful  calamities.  In 
the  plains,  framed  in  rice  plantations,  several  hamlets 
and  solitary  houses  give  animation  to  the  scene.  Op¬ 
posite  to  the  mouth  of  the  bay  rises  the  town,  containing 
60,000  inhabitants,  with  its  lighthouse  and  far-extending 
suburbs.  It  is  watered  by  the  Passig,  a  river  issuing  from 
Bay  lake,  and  its  exceptionally  good  situation  secures  to 
it  advantage  which  more  than  one  capital  might  envy. 
The  garrison,  without  including  the  militia,  consisted  at 
that  time  of  2,200  soldiers ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  Spanish 
navy,  always  represented  by  some  vessel  at  anchor,  a 
marine  service  had  been  organized  for  the  exclusive  use 
of  the  colony,  to  which  the  name  of  “  sutil  ”  had  been 
given,  either  on  account  of  the  small  size,  or  the  fleetness 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  143 

of  the  vessels  employed.  This  service,  all  appointments 
in  which  are  in  the  gift  of  the  governor-general,  is  com¬ 
posed  of  schooners  and  gun-sloops,  intended  to  protect 
the  coasts  and  the  trading-vessels  against  the  pirates  of 
Sulu.  But  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  organization,  im¬ 
posing  as  it  is,  has  achieved  any  great  results.  Of  this 
Bougainville  gives  the  following  curious  illustration:  In 
1828,  Suluans  seized  3,000  of  the  inhabitants  upon  the 
coast  of  Luzon,  and  an  expedition  sent  against  them  cost 
140,000  piastres,  and  resulted  in  the  killing  of  six  men ! 

Great  uneasiness  prevailed  in  the  Philippines  at  the 
time  of  the  visit  of  the  Thetis  and  Esperance,  and  a  poli¬ 
tical  reaction  which  had  steeped  the  metropolis  in  blood, 
had  thrown  a  gloom  over  every  one.  On  December  20, 
1820,  a  massacre  of  the  whites  by  the  Indians ;  in  1824,  the 
mutiny  of  a  regiment,  and  the  assassination  of  an  ex¬ 
governor,  Senor  de  Folgueras,  had  been  the  first  horrors 
which  had  endangered  the  supremacy  of  the  Spanish. 

The  Creoles,  who,  with  the  Tagalas,  were  alike  the  rich¬ 
est  and  most  industrious  classes  of  the  true  native  popula¬ 
tion,  at  this  time  gave  just  cause  for  uneasiness  to  the 
government,  because  they  were  known  to  desire  the  expul¬ 
sion  of  all  who  were  not  natives  of  the  Philippines;  and 
when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  they  commanded  the  native 
regiments,  and  held  the  greater  part  of  the  public  offices, 
it  is  easy  to  see  how  great  must  have  been  their  influence. 
Well  might  people  ask  whether  they  were  not  on  the  eve 
of  one  of  those  revolutions  which  lost  to  Spain  her  fairest 
colonies. 

Until  the  Thetis  reached  Macao,  she  was  harassed  by 

squalls,  gales,  heavy  showers,  and  an  intensity  of  cold, 

felt  all  the  more  keenly  by  the  navigators  after  their 

experience  for  several  months  in  a  temperature  of  75%° 

Fahrenheit.  Scarcelv  was  anchor  cast  in  the  Canton  river 

%/ 

before  a  great  number  of  native  vessels  came  to  examine 
the  frigate,  offering  for  sale  vegetables,  fish,  oranges,  and 
a  multitude  of  trifles,  once  so  rare,  now  so  common,  but 
always  costly. 

“  The  town  of  Macao,’ ’  says  the  narrative,  “  shut  in 


144 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


between  bare  hills,  can  be  seen  from  afar;  the  whiteness 
of  its  buildings  rendering  it  very  conspicuous.  It  partly 
faces  the  coast,  and  the  houses,  which  are  elegantly  built, 
line  the  beach,  following  the  natural  contour  of  the  shore. 
The  parade  is  also  the  finest  part  of  the  town,  and  is 
much  frequented  by  foreigners;  behind  it,  the  ground 
rises  abruptly,  and  the  facades  of  the  buildings,  such  as 
convents,  noticeable  for  their  size  and  peculiar  archi¬ 
tecture,  rise,  so  to  speak,  from  the  second  stage;  the  whole 
being  crowned  by  the  embattled  walls  of  the  forts,  over 
which  floated  the  white  flag  of  Portugal. 

At  the  northern  and  southern  extremities  of  the  town, 
facing  the  sea,  are  batteries  built  in  three  stages;  and 
near  the  first,  but  a  little  further  inland,  rises  a  church 
with  a  very  effective  portico  and  fine  external  decorations. 
Numerous  sampans,  junks,  and  fishing-boats  anchored 
close  in  shore,  give  animation  to  the  scene,  the  setting  of 
which  would  be  much  brightened  if  the  heights  overlook¬ 
ing  the  town  were  not  so  totally  wanting  in  verdure. 

Situated  as  it  is  on  the  high  road,  between  China  and 
the  rest  of  the  world,  Macao,  once  one  of  the  chief  relics 
of  Portuguese  colonial  prosperity,  long  enjoyed  excep¬ 
tional  privileges,  all  of  which  were,  however,  gone  by 
1825,  when  its  one  industry  was  contraband  trade  in 
opium. 

The  Thetis  only  touched  at  Macao  to  leave  some  mis¬ 
sionaries,  and  to  hoist  the  French  flag,  and  Bougainville 
set  sail  again  on  January  8th. 

Nothing  worthy  of  notice  occurred  on  the  voyage  from 
Macao  to  Touron  Bay.  Arrived  there,  Bougainville 
learned  that  the  French  agent,  M.  Cliaigneu,  had  left  Hue 
for  Saigon,  with  the  intention  of  there  chartering  a 
barque  for  Singapore,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  only 
person  who  could  further  his  schemes  he  did  not  know 
with  whom  to  open  relations.  Fearing  failure  as  an  in¬ 
evitable  result  of  this  contretemps  he  at  once  despatched 
a  letter  to  Hue,  explaining  the  object  of  his  mission,  and 
expressing  a  wish  to  go  with  some  of  his  officers  to  Saigon. 
The  time  which  necessarily  elapsed  before  an  answer  was 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  145 


received  was  turned  to  account  by  the  French,  who 
minutely  surveyed  the  bay  and  its  surroundings,  together 
with  the  famous  marble  rocks,  the  objects  of  the  curious 
interest  of  all  travelers.  Touron  Bay  has  been  described 
by  various  authors,  notably  by  Horsburgh,  as  one  of  the 
must  beautiful  and  vast  in  the  universe ;  but  such  is  not 
the  opinion  of  Bougainville,  who  thinks  these  statements 
are  to  be  taken  with  a  great  deal  of  reservation.  The 
village  of  Touron  is  situated  upon  the  seacoast,  at  the 
entrance  of  the  channel  of  Faifoh,  from  the  right  bank  of 
which  rises  a  fort  with  glacis,  bastions,  and  a  dry  moat, 
built  by  French  engineers. 

The  French  being  looked  upon  as  old  allies  were  always 

received  with  kindness  and  without  suspicion.  It  had 

* 

not,  apparently,  been  so  with  the  English,  who  had  not 
been  permitted  to  land,  whilst  the  sailors  on  board  the 
Thetis  were  at  once  allowed  to  tisli  and  hunt,  and  to  go 
and  come  as  they  chose,  every  facility  for  obtaining  fresh 
provisions  being  also  accorded  to  them.  Thanks  to  this 
latitude,  the  officers  were  able  to  scour  the  country  and 
make  interesting  observations.  One  of  them,  M.  de  la 
Touanne,  gives  the  following  description  of  the  natives : 
1  ‘  They  are  rather  under  than  over  middle  height,  and  in 
this  respect  they  closely  resemble  the  Chinese  of  Macao. 
Their  skin  is  of  a  yellowish-brown,  and  their  heads  are 
flat  and  round.  Their  faces  are  without  expression,  their 
eyes  are  as  melancholy,  but  their  eyebrows  are  not  so 
strongly  marked,  as  those  of  the  Chinese.  They  have 
large  flat  noses  and  large  mouths,  and  their  lips  bulge 
out  in  a  way  rendered  the  more  disagreeable  as  they  are 
always  black  and  dirty  from  the  habit  indulged  in,  by 
men  and  women  alike,  of  chewing  areca  nut  mixed  with 
betel  and  lime.  The  women,  who  are  almost  as  tall  as 
the  men,  have  not  a  more  pleasant  appearance ;  and  the 
repulsive  filthiness,  common  to  both  sexes,  is  enough  with¬ 
out  anything  else  to  deprive  them  of  all  attractiveness.” 

What  strikes  one  most  is  the  wretchedness  of  the  in¬ 
habitants  as  compared  with  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and 
this  shocking  contrast  betrays  alike  the  selfishness  and 


146  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

carelessness  of  tlie  government  and  tlie  insatiable  greed 
of  the  mandarins.  Tlie  plains  produce  maize,  yams, 
manioc,  tobacco,  and  rice,  the  flourishing  appearance  of 
which  testifies  to  the  care  bestowed  upon  them.  The  sea 
yields  large  quantities  of  delicious  fish,  and  the  forests 
give  shelter  to  numerous  birds,  as  well  as  tigers,  rhinoc¬ 
eroses,  buffaloes,  and  elephants,  and  troops  of  monkeys 
are  to  be  met  with  everywhere,  some  of  them  four  feet 
high,  with  bodies  of  a  pearl-grey  color,  black  thighs,  and 
red  legs.  They  wear  red  collars  and  white  girdles,  which 
make  them  look  just  as  if  they  were  clothed.  Their  mus¬ 
cular  strength  is  extraordinary,  and  they  clear  enormous 
distances  in  leaping  from  branch  to  branch.  Nothing  can 
be  odder  than  to  see  some  dozen  of  these  creatures  upon 
one  tree  indulging  in  the  most  fantastic  grimaces  and 
contortions.  “  One  day,”  says  Bougainville,  “  when  I 
was  at  the  edge  of  the  forest,  I  wounded  a  monkey  who 
had  ventured  forth  for  a  stroll  in  the  sunshine.  He  hid 
his  face  in  his  hands  and  sent  forth  such  piteous  groans 
that  more  than  thirty  of  his  tribe  were  about  him  in  a 
moment.  I  lost  no  time  in  reloading  my  gun  not  knowing 
what  I  might  have  to  expect,  for  some  monkeys  are  not 
afraid  of  attacking  men ;  but  the  troop  only  took  up  their 
wounded  comrade,  and  once  more  plunged  into  the 
woods.” 

Another  excursion  was  made  to  the  marble  rocks  of  the 
Faifoh  Kiver,  where  are  several  curious  caves,  one  con¬ 
taining  an  enormous  pillar  suspended  from  the  roof  and 
ending  abruptly  some  distance  from  the  ground;  stalac¬ 
tites  were  seen,  and  the  sound  of  a  water-fall  was  heard 
from  the  further  end.  The  French  also  visited  the  ruins 
of  an  ancient  building  near  a  grotto,  containing  an 
idol,  with  a  passage  opening  out  of  one  corner.  This 
passage  Bougainville  followed.  It  led  him  into  an  “  im¬ 
mense  rotunda  lighted  from  the  top,  and  ending  in  an 
arched  vault,  at  least  sixty  feet  high.  Imagine  the  effect 
of  a  series  of  marble  pillars  of  various  colors,  some  from 
their  greenish  colors,  the  result  of  old  age  and  damp, 
looking  as  if  cast  in  bronze,  whilst  from  the  roof  hung 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BAEON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  147 


down  creepers,  now  in  festoons,  now  in  bunches,  looking 
for  all  the  world  like  candelabra  without  the  lights. 
Above  our  heads  were  groups  of  stalactites  resembling 
great  organ-pipes,  altars,  mutilated  statues,  hideous 
monsters  carved  in  stone,  and  even  a  complete  pagoda, 
which,  however,  occupied  but  a  very  small  space  in  the 
vast  enclosure.  Fancy  such  a  scene  in  an  appropriate 
setting,  the  whole  lit  up  with  a  dim  and  wavering  light, 
and  you  can  perhaps  form  some  idea  how  it  struck  me 
when  it  first  burst  upon  me.” 

On  the  20th  of  January,  1825,  the  Esperance  at  last 
rejoined  the  frigate;  and,  two  days  later,  two  envoys  ar¬ 
rived  from  the  court  at  Hue,  with  orders  to  ask  Bougain¬ 
ville  for  the  letter  of  which  he  was  the  bearer.  But,  as 
the  latter  had  received  orders  to  deliver  it  to  the  Emperor 
in  person,  this  request  involved  a  long  series  of  puerile 
negotiations.  The  formalities  by  which  the  Cochin- 
Chinese  envoys  were,  so  to  speak,  hemmed  in,  reminded 
Bougainville  of  the  anecdote  of  the  envoy  and  the  gov¬ 
ernor  of  Java,  who,  rivalling  each  other  in  their  gravity 
and  diplomatic  prudence,  remained  together  for  twenty- 
four  hours  without  exchanging  a  word.  The  commander 
was  not  the  man  to  endure  such  trial  of  patience  as  this, 
but  he  could  not  obtain  the  necessary  authorization  of 
his  explorations,  and  the  negotiations  ended  in  an  ex¬ 
change  of  presents,  securing  nothing  in  fact  but  an  assur¬ 
ance  from  the  Emperor  that  he  would  receive  with  pleas¬ 
ure  a  visit  of  the  French  vessels  to  his  ports,  if  their 
captain  and  officers  would  conform  to  the  laws  of  the 
Empire.  Since  1817  the  French  had  been  pretty  well 
the  only  people  who  had  done  any  satisfactory  business 
with  the  people  of  Cochin-China,  a  state  of  things  result¬ 
ing  from  the  presence  of  French  residents  at  the  court 
of  Hue,  on  whom  alone  of  course  depended  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  the  exceptionally  cordial  relations  so  long  estab¬ 
lished  between  them  and  the  government  to  which  they 
were  accredited. 

The  two  ships  left  Touron  Bay  on  the  17th  of  February 
for  the  Anambas  Archipelago,  which  had  not  as  yet  been 


148 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


explored ;  and,  on  the  3d  of  March,  they  came  in  sight  of 
it,  and  found  it  to  bear  no  resemblance  whatever  to  the 
islands  of  the  same  name,  marked  upon  the  English  map 
of  the  China  Sea.  Bougainville  was  agreeably  surprised 
to  see  a  large  number  of  islands  and  islets,  the  bays,  etc., 
of  which  were  sure  to  afford  excellent  anchorage  during 
the  monsoons.  The  explorers  penetrated  to  the  very 
heart  of  the  archipelago,  and  made  a  hydrographic  survey 
of  it.  Whilst  the  small  boats  were  engaged  upon  this 
task,  two  prettily  built  canoes  approached,  from  one  of 
which  a  man  of  about  fifty  came  on  board  the  Thetis, 
whose  breast  was  seamed  with  scars,  and  from  whose 
right  hand  two  fingers  were  missing.  The  sight  of  the 
rows  of  guns  and  ammunition,  however,  so  terrified  him 
that  he  beat  a  hasty  retreat  to  his  canoe,  though  he  had 
already  got  as  far  as  the  orlop  deck.  Next  day  two  more 
canoes  approached,  manned  by  fierce-looking  Malays, 
bringing  bananas,  cocoa-nuts,  and  pineapples  which  they 
bartered  for  biscuits,  a  handkerchief,  and  two  small  axes. 
Several  other  interviews  took  place  with  islanders,  armed 
with  the  kris,  and  short  two-edged  iron  pikes,  who  were 
very  evidently  pirates  by  profession.  .  .  . 

At  Surabaya  the  explorers  were  met  with  the  news 
of  the  death  of  Louis  NVIII.  and  the  accession  of 
Charles  X.  As  the  cholera,  which  had  claimed 
300,000  victims  in  Java  in  1822,  was  still  raging, 
Bougainville  took  the  precaution  of  keeping  his  crew  on 
board  under  shelter  from  the  sun,  and  expressly  forbade 
any  intercourse  with  vessels  laden  with  fruit,  the  use  of 
which  is  so  dangerous  to  Europeans,  especially  during 
the  rainy  season  then  setting  in.  In  spite  of  these  wise 
orders,  however,  dysentery  attacked  the  crew  of  the 
Thetis,  and  too  manv  fell  victims  to  it. 

The  town  of  Surabaya  is  situated  one  league  from  the 
mouth  of  the  river,  and  it  can  only  be  reached  by  towing 
up  the  stream.  Its  approaches  are  lively,  and  everything 
bears  witness  to  the  presence  of  an  active  commercial 
population.  An  expedition  to  the  island  of  Celebes  hav¬ 
ing  exhausted  the  resources  of  the  government  and  the 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  149 


magazines  being  empty,  Bougainville  had  to  deal  direct 
with  the  Chinese  merchants,  who  are  the  most  bare-faced 
robbers  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  and  now  resorted  to  all 
manner  of  cunning  and  knavery  to  get  the  better  of  their 
visitors.  The  stay  at  Surabaya,  therefore,  left  a  very 
disagreeable  impression  on  all.  It  was  quite  different, 
however,  with  regard  to  the  reception  met  with  from  the 
chief  personages  of  the  colony,  for  there  was  every  rea¬ 
son  to  be  satisfied  with  the  conduct  of  all  connected  with 
the  government. 

To  go  to  Surabaya  without  paying  a  visit  to  the  Sultan 
of  Madura,  whose  reputation  for  hospitality  had  crossed 
the  seas,  would  have  been  as  impossible  as  it  is  to  visit 
Paris  without  going  to  see  Versailles  and  Trianon.  After 
a  comfortable  lunch  on  shore,  therefore,  the  staff  of  the 
two  vessels  set  out  in  open  carriages  and  four;  but  the 
roads  were  so  bad  and  the  horses  so  worn  out  that  they 
would  many  a  time  have  stuck  in  the  mud  if  the  men 
stationed  at  the  dangerous  places  had  not  energetically 
shoved  at  the  wheels.  At  last  they  arrived  at  Bankalan, 
and  the  carriages  drew  up  in  the  third  court  of  the  palace 
at  the  foot  of  a  staircase,  at  the  top  of  which  the  heredi¬ 
tary  prince  and  the  prime  minister  awaited  the  arrival 
of  the  travelers.  Prince  Adden  Engrate  belonged  to  the 
most  illustrious  family  of  the  Indian  Archipelago.  He 
wore  the  undress  uniform  of  a  Java  chief,  consisting  of 
a  long  flowered  petticoat  of  Indian  make,  scarcely  allow¬ 
ing  the  Chinese  slippers  to  be  seen,  a  white  vest  with 
gold  buttons,  and  a  small  skirted  waist-coat  of  brown 
cloth,  with  diamond  buttons.  A  handkerchief  was  tied 
about  his  head,  on  which  he  wore  a  visor-cap,  his  ease 
and  dignity  of  bearing  alone  saving  him  from  looking 
like  the  grotesque  figure  of  a  carnival  amazon.  The 
palace  or  “  kraton  ”  consisted  of  a  series  of  buildings 
with  galleries,  kept  delightfully  cool  by  awnings  and  cur¬ 
tains,  whilst  lustres,  tasty  European  furniture,  pretty 
hangings,  glass  and  crystal  ornaments  decorated  the  vast 
halls  and  rooms.  A  suite  of  private  apartments,  with 
no  opening  to  the  court,  but  with  a  view  of  the  gardens, 
is  reserved  for  the  “  Batu  ”  (sovereign)  and  the  harem. 


150 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


The  reception  was  cordial,  and  the  repast,  served  in 
European  style,  was  delicious.  “  The  conversation,” 
says  Bougainville,  “  was  conducted  in  English,  and  many 
toasts  were  proposed,  the  prince  drinking  our  healths  in 
tea  poured  from  a  bottle,  and  to  which  he  helped  himself 
as  if  it  had  been  Madeira.  Being  head  of  the  church  as 
well  as  of  the  state,  he  strictly  obeys  the  precepts  of  the 
Koran,  never  drinking  wine,  and  spending  a  great  part 
of  his  time  at  the  mosque ;  but  he  is  not  the  less  sociable, 
and  his  talk  bears  no  trace  of  the  austerity  to  be  expected 
in  that  of  one  who  leads  so  regular  a  life.  The  life  is 
not,  however,  all  spent  in  prayer,  and  the  scenes  wit¬ 
nessed  by  us  would  give  a  very  false  impression  if  we  did 
not  know  that  great  latitude  is  allowed  on  this  point  to 
the  followers  of  the  prophet.” 

In  the  afternoon  the  Frenchmen  visited  several  coach¬ 
houses,  containing  very  handsome  carriages,  some  of 
which,  built  on  the  island,  were  so  well  made  that  it  was 
absolutely  impossible  to  distinguish  them  from  those 
which  had  been  imported.  Some  archery  was  then  wit¬ 
nessed,  and  joined  in,  after  which,  on  the  return  to  the 
palace,  the  visitors  were  welcomed  by  the  sound  of  melan¬ 
choly  music,  speedily  interrupted,  however,  by  the  bark¬ 
ing  and  fantastical  dancing  of  the  prince’s  fool,  who 
showed  wonderful  agility  and  suppleness.  To  this  dance, 
or  rather  to  these  postures  of  a  bayadere,  succeeded  the 
excitement  of  vingt-et-un,  followed  by  well-earned  repose. 
Next  day  there  were  new  entertainments  and  new  exer¬ 
cises;  beginning  with  wrestling-matches  for  grown  men 
and  for  youths,  and  proceeding  with  quail-tights,  and 
feats  performed  by  a  camel  and  an  elephant.  After  lunch 
Bougainville  and  his  party  had  a  drive  and  some  archery, 
and  witnessed  sack-races,  basket-balancing,  etc.  In  this 
way,  they  were  told,  the  sultan  passed  all  his  time.  Most 
striking  is  the  respect  and  submission  shown  by  all  to  this 
sovereign.  No  one  ever  stands  upright  before  him,  but 
all  prostrate  themselves  before  addressing  him.  All  his 
subjects  do  but  4 ‘  wait  at  his  feet,”  and  even  his  own 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  151 

little  child  of  four  years  clasps  his  tiny  hands  when  he 
speaks  to  his  father. 

While  at  Surabaya,  Bougainville  took  the  opportunity 
of  visiting  the  volcano  of  Brumo,  in  the  Tengger  Moun¬ 
tains  ;  and  this  excursion,  in  which  he  explored  the  island 
for  a  hundred  miles,  from  east  to  west,  was  one  of  the 
most  interesting  undertaken  by  him.  Surabaya  contains 
some  curious  buildings  and  monuments,  most  of  them 
the  work  of  a  former  governor,  General  Daendels;  such 
are  the  “  Builder’s  Workshop,”  the  “  Hotel  cle  la  Mon- 
naie  ”  (the  only  establishment  of  the  kind  in  Java),  and 
the  hospital,  which  is  built  on  a  well-chosen  site,  and  con¬ 
tains  400  beds.  The  island  of  Madura,  opposite  to  Sura¬ 
baya,  is  at  least  100  miles  in  length,  by  fifteen  or  twenty 
in  breadth,  and  does  not  yield  produce  sufficient  to  main¬ 
tain  the  population,  sparse  as  it  is.  The  sovereignty  of 
this  island  is  divided  between  the  sultans  of  Bankalan  and 
Sumanap,  who  furnish  annually  six  hundred  recruits  to 
the  Dutch,  without  counting  extraordinary  levies. 

On  the  20th  of  April,  symptoms  of  dysentery  showed 
themselves  amongst  the  crews.  Two  days  later  therefore 
the  vessel  set  sail,  and  it  took  seven  good  days  to  get 
beyond  the  straits  of  Madura.  They  returned  along 
the  north  coast  of  Lombok,  and  passed  through  the  Allas 
Straits,  between  Lombok  and  Sumbawa.  The  first  of 
these  islands,  from  the  foot  of  the  mountains  to  the  sea, 
presents  the  appearance  of  a  green  carpet,  adorned  with 
groups  of  trees  of  elegant  appearance,  and  upon  its  coast 
there  is  no  lack  of  good  anchorage,  whilst  fresh  water 
and  wood  are  plentiful.  On  the  other  side,  however, 
there  are  numerous  peaks  of  barren  aspect,  rising  from 
a  lofty  table-land,  the  approach  to  which  is  barred  by  a 
series  of  rugged  and  inaccessible  islands,  known  as  Lom¬ 
bok,  the  coral-beds  and  treacherous  currents  about  which 
must  be  carefully  avoided.  Two  stoppages  at  the  vil¬ 
lages  of  Baly  and  Peejow,  with  a  view  to  taking  in  fresh 
provisions,  enabled  the  officers  to  make  a  hydrographical 
chart  of  this  part  of  the  coast  of  Lombok.  Upon  leaving 
the  strait,  Bougainville  made  an  unsuccessful  search 


152 


EXPLOITATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


for  Cloates  Island.  That  he  did  not  find  it  was  not  very 
wonderful,  as  during  the  last  eight  years  many  ships  have 
passed  over  the  spot  assigned  to  it  upon  the  maps.  The 
“  Triads,’ ’  on  the  other  hand,  i.  e.,  the  rocks  seen  in 
1777  by  the  Freudensberg  Castle,  are,  in  Captain  King’s 
opinion,  the  Montepello  Islands,  which  correspond  per¬ 
fectly  with  the  description  of  the  Danes. 

The  Thetis  and  Esperance  were  pursued  by  bad 
weather  as  far  as  Hobart  Town,  the  chief  English  station 
upon  the  coast  of  Tasmania,  where  the  commander  was 
very  anxious  to  put  in.  He  was,  however,  driven  back 
by  storms  to  Port  Jackson,  which  is  marked  by  a  very 
handsome  lighthouse,  a  granite  tower  seventy-six  feet 
high,  with  a  lantern  lit  by  gas,  visible  at  a  distance  of 
nine  leagues. 

Sir  Thomas  Brisbane,  the  governor,  gave  a  cordial  re¬ 
ception  to  the  expedition,  and  at  once  took  the  necessary 
steps  to  furnish  it  with  provisions.  This  was  done  by 
contract  at  low  prices,  and  the  greatest  good  faith  was 
shown  in  carrying  out  all  bargains.  The  sloop  had  to  be 
run  ashore  to  have  its  sheathing  repaired,  but  this,  with 
some  work  of  less  importance  necessary  to  the  Thetis, 
did  not  take  long.  The  delay  was  also  turned  to  account 
by  the  whole  staff,  who  were  greatly  interested  in  the 
marvelous  progress  of  this  penal  colony.  While  Bou¬ 
gainville  was  eagerly  reading  all  the  works  which  had  as 
yet  appeared  upon  New  South  Wales,  the  officers  wan¬ 
dered  about  the  town,  and  were  struck  dumb  with  amaze¬ 
ment  at  the  numberless  public  buildings  erected  by  Gov¬ 
ernor  Macquarie,  such  as  the  barracks,  hospital,  market, 
orphanages,  almshouses  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  the 
prison,  the  fort,  the  churches,  government  house,  the 
fountains,  the  town  gates,  and  last  but  not  least,  the  gov¬ 
ernment  stables,  which  are  always  at  first  sight  taken  for 
the  palace  itself.  There  was,  however,  a  dark  side  to  the 
picture.  The  main  thoroughfares,  though  well  planned, 
were  neither  paved  nor  lighted,  and  were  so  unsafe  at 
night,  that  several  people  had  been  seized  and  robbed  in 
the  very  middle  of  George  street,  the  best  quarter  of 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  153 

Sydney.  If  the  streets  in  the  town  were  unsafe,  those  in 
the  suburbs  were  still  more  so.  Vagrant  convicts  over¬ 
ran  the  country  in  the  form  of  bands  of  “  husli-rangers,  ’  ’ 
who  had  become  so  formidable  that  the  government  had 
recently  organized  a  company  of  fifty  dragoons  for  the 
express  purpose  of  hunting  them  down.  All  this  did  not, 
however,  hinder  the  officers  from  making  many  interest¬ 
ing  excursions,  such  as  those  to  Paramatta,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nepean,  a  river  very  deeply  embanked,  where  they 
visited  the  Regent  Ville  district;  and  to  the  “  Plains  of 
Emu,”  a  government  agricultural  station,  and  a  sort  of 
model  farm.  They  went  to  the  theatre,  where  a  grand 
performance  was  given  in  their  honor.  The  delight  sail¬ 
ors  take  in  riding  is  proverbial,  and  it  was  on  horseback 
that  the  French  crossed  the  Emu  plains.  The  noble  ani¬ 
mals,  imported  from  England,  had  not  degenerated  in 
New  South  Wales;  they  were  still  full  of  spirit  as  one  of 
the  young  officers  found  to  his  cost,  when,  as  he  was  say¬ 
ing  in  English  to  Sir  John  Cox,  acting  as  cicerone  to  the 
party,  “  I  do  love  this  riding  exercise,”  he  was  suddenly 
thrown  over  his  horse’s  head  and  deposited  on  the  grass 
before  he  knew  where  he  was.  The  laugh  against  him 
was  all  the  more  hearty  as  the  skillful  horseman  was  not 
injured. 

Beyond  Sir  John  Cox’s  plantation  extends  the  unbrok¬ 
en  “  open  forest,”  as  the  English  call  it,  which  can  be 
crossed  on  horseback,  and  consists  chiefly  of  the  eucalyp¬ 
tus,  and  acacias  of  various  kinds.  The  next  day,  an  ex¬ 
cursion  was  made  up  the  river  Nepean,  a  tributary  of 
the  Hawke sbury,  on  which  trip  many  valuable  facts  of 
natural  history  were  obtained. 

Another  excursion  was  made  in  the  Blue  Mountains, 
where  the  famous  “  King’s  Tableland  ”  was  visited,  from 
which  a  magnificent  view  was  obtained.  The  explorers 
gained  with  great  difficulty  the  top  of  an  eminence,  and 
an  abyss  of  1600  feet  at  once  opened  beneath  them;  a  vast 
green  carpet  stretching  away  to  a  distance  of  some  twenty 
miles,  whilst  on  the  right  and  left  were  the  distorted  sides 
of  the  mountain,  which  had  been  rudely  rent  asunder  by 


154 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


some  earthquake,  the  irregularities  corresponding  exactly 
with  each  other.  Close  at  hand  foams  a  roaring,  rushing 
torrent,  flinging  itself  in  a  series  of  cascades  into  the 
valley  beneath,  the  whole  passing  under  the  name  of 
“  Apsley’s  Waterfall.  ”  This  trip  was  succeeded  by  a 
kangaroo  hunt  in  the  cow-pastures  with  Mr.  Maearthur, 
one  of  the  chief  promoters  of  the  prosperity  of  New  South 
Wales.  Bougainville  also  turned  his  stay  at  Sydney  to 
account  by  laying  the  foundation  stone  of  a  monument 
to  the  memory  of  La  Perouse.  This  cenotaph  was  erected 
in  Botany  Bay,  upon  the  spot  where  the  navigator  had 
pitched  his  camp. 

On  September  21st  the  Thetis  and  the  Esperance  last 
set  sail;  passing  off  Pitcairn  Island,  Easter  Island,  and 
Juan  Fernandez,  now  a  convict  settlement  for  criminals 
from  Chili,  after  having  been  occupied  for  a  half  century 
by  Spanish  vine-growers. 

On  the  23d  November  the  Thetis,  which  had  been  sep¬ 
arated  from  the  Esperance  during  a  heavy  storm,  an¬ 
chored  off  Valparaiso,  where  it  met  Admiral  de  Rosa- 
mel’s  division. 

Bougainville,  like  the  Russian  navigator  Liitke,  is  of 
opinion  that  the  position  of  Valparaiso  does  not  justify 
its  reputation.  The  streets  are  dirty  and  narrow,  and 
so  steep  that  walking  in  them  is  very  fatiguing.  The 
only  pleasant  part  is  the  suburb  of  Almendral,  which, 
with  its  gardens  and  orchards,  would  be  still  more  agree¬ 
able  but  for  the  sand-storms  prevalent  throughout  nearly 
the  whole  of  the  year.  In  1811,  Valparaiso  numbered 
only  from  four  to  five  thousand  inhabitants ;  but  in  1825 
the  population  had  already  tripled  itself,  and  the  increase 
showed  no  sign  of  ceasing.  When  the  Thetis  touched  at 
Valparaiso,  the  English  frigate,  the  Blonde,  commanded 
by  Lord  Byron,  grandson  of  the  explorer  of  the  same 
name,  was  also  at  anchor  there.  By  a  singular  coinci¬ 
dence  Byron  had  raised  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
Cook  in  the  island  of  Hawaii,  at  the  very  time  when 
Bougainville,  the  son  of  the  circumnavigator,  met  by 
Byron  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  was  laying  the 


HOMEWARD  BOUND 


“Breathes  there  a  man  with  soul  so  dead, 

Who  never  to  himself  hath  said, 

This  is  my  own,  my  native  land  ! 

Whose  heart  hath  ne’er  within  him  burn’d 
As  home  his  footsteps  he  hath  turn’d 
From  wandering  on  a  foreign  strand?” 

— Scott’s  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel. 


THE  EXPEDITION  OF  BARON  DE  BOUGAINVILLE  157 


foundation  stone  of  the  monument  to  the  memory  of  La 
Perouse  in  New  South  Wales. 

Bougainville  turned  the  delay  necessary  for  the  revict¬ 
ualling  of  his  division  to  account  by  paying  a  visit  to  San¬ 
tiago,  the  capital  of  Chili,  thirty-three  leagues  inland. 
The  environs  of  Chili  are  terribly  bare,  without  houses 
or  any  signs  of  cultivation.  Its  steeples  alone  mark  the 
approach  to  it,  and  one  may  fancy  oneself  still  in  the  out¬ 
skirts  when  the  heart  of  the  city  is  reached.  There  is, 
however,  no  lack  of  public  buildings,  such  as  the  Hotel  de 
la  Monnaie,  the  university,  the  archbishop’s  palace,  the 
cathedral,  the  church  of  the  Jesuits,  the  palace,  and  the 
theatre,  the  last  of  which  is  so  badly  lighted  that  it  is  im¬ 
possible  to  distinguish  the  faces  of  the  audience.  The 
promenade,  known  as  La  Canada,  has  now  supplanted 
that  of  L ’Alameda  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Mapocha, 
once  the  evening  rendezvous.  The  objects  of  interest  in 
the  town  exhausted,  the  Frenchmen  examined  those  in  the 
neighborhood,  visiting  the  Salto  de  Agua,  a  waterfall  1200 
feet  in  height,  the  ascent  to  which  is  rather  arduous,  and 
the  Cerito  de  Santa-Lucia,  from  which  rises  a  fortress,  the 
sole  defense  of  the  town. 

The  season  was  now  advancing,  and  no  time  was  to  be 
lost  if  the  explorers  wished  to  take  advantage  of  the  best 
season  for  doubling  Cape  Horn.  On  the  8th  January, 
1826,  therefore,  the  two  vessels  once  more  put  to  sea,  and 
rounded  the  Cape  without  any  mishap,  though  landing  at 
the  Falklands  was  rendered  impossible  by  fog  and  con¬ 
trary  winds.  Anchor  was  cast  on  the  28th  March  in  the 
roadstead  of  Rio  Janeiro,  and,  as  it  turned  out,  at  a  time 
most  favorable  for  the  French  to  form  an  accurate  opin¬ 
ion  alike  of  the  city  and  the  court, 

“  The  emperor,”  says  Bougainville,  “  was  upon  a  jour- 
nev  at  the  time  of  our  arrival,  and  his  return  was  the  oc- 
casion  of  fetes  and  receptions  which  roused  the  population 
to  activity,  and  broke  for  a  time  the  monotony  of  ordinary 
life  in  Rio,  that  dullest  and  dreariest  of  towns  to  a  for¬ 
eigner.  Its  environs,  however,  are  charming ;  nature  has 
in  them  been  lavish  of  her  riches ;  and  the  vast  harbor, 


158  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

the  Atlantic,  rendezvous  of  the  commercial  world,  pre¬ 
sents  a  most  animated  scene.  Innumerable  ships,  either 
standing  in  or  getting  under  weigh,  small  craft  cruising 
about,  a  ceaseless  roar  of  cannon  from  the  forts  and  men- 
of-war,  exchanging  signals  on  the  occasion  of  some  anni¬ 
versary  or  the  celebration  of  some  festival  of  the  church, 
whilst  visits  were  constantly  being  exchanged  between  the 
officers  of  the  various  foreign  vessels  and  the  diplomatic 
agents  of  foreign  powers  at  the  court  of  Rio. 

The  division  set  sail  again  on  the  11th  of  April,  and  ar¬ 
rived  at  Brest  on  the  24tli  June,  1826,  without  having 
put  into  port  since  it  left  Rio  Janeiro. 


ON  THE  NILE  IN  CENTRAL  AFRICA. 


BY 


Capt.  J.  H.  Speke. 

Capt.  J.  H.  Speke  was  born  in  England  in  1827  and  died  in  1864. 
He  went  to  the  Central  African  Lakes  with  R.  E.  Burton  in  1858,  after 
having  seen  military  service  in  India.  He  crossed  Africa  with  Grant 
from  Zanzibar  over  the  Victoria  Nyanza  and  down  the  Nile  to  Egypt 
in  1860-63.  He  was  the  discoverer  of  the  Victoria  Nyanza  and  the 
main  sources  of  the  Nile. 


'[  ERE  at  last  I  stood  on  the  brink  of  the  Nile.  Most 
beautiful  was  the  scene;  nothing  could  surpass  it! 
A  It  was  the  very  perfection  of  the  kind  of  effect 
aimed  at  in  a  highly-kept  park ;  with  a  magnificent  stream 
from  600  to  700  yards  wide,  dotted  with  islets  and  rocks, 
the  former  occupied  by  fishermen’s  huts,  the  latter  by 
sterns  and  crocodiles  basking  in  the  sun,  flowing  between 
fine  high  grassy  banks,  with  rich  trees  and  plantains  in 
the  background,  where  herds  of  the  n’sunnu  and  liarte- 
beest  could  be  seen  grazing,  while  the  hippopotami  were 
snorting  in  the  water,  and  florikan  and  Guinea-fowl  rising 
at  our  feet.  Unfortunately,  the  chief  district  officer, 

Erom  11  Journal  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Source  of  the  Nile.” 
London. 


ON  THE  NILE  IN  CENTRAL  AFRICA  159 

Mlondo,  was  from  home,  but  we  took  possession  of  his 
huts  —  clean,  extensive,  and  tidily  kept  —  facing  the  river, 
and  felt  as  if  a  residence  here  would  do  one  good.  Delays 
and  subterfuges,  however,  soon  came  to  damp  our  spirits. 
The  acting  officer  was  sent  for,  and  asked  for  the  boats ; 
they  were  all  scattered,  and  could  not  be  collected  for  a 
day  or  two ;  but,  even  if  they  were  at  hand,  no  boat  ever 
went  up  or  down  the  river.  The  chief  was  away  and 
would  be  sent  for,  as  the  king  often  changed  his  orders, 
and,  after  all,  might  not  mean  what  had  been  said.  The 
district  belonged  to  the  sakibobo,  and  no  representative 
of  his  had  come  here.  These  excuses,  of  course,  would 
not  satisfy  us.  The  boats  must  be  collected,  seven,  if 
there  are  not  ten,  for  we  must  try  them,  and  come  to  some 
understanding  about  them,  before  we  march  up  stream, 
when,  if  the  officer  values  his  life,  he  will  let  us  have  them, 
and  acknowledge  Kasoro  as  the  king’s  representative, 
otherwise  a  complaint  will  be  sent  to  the  palace,  for  we 
won’t  stand  trifling. 

We  were  now  confronting  Usoga,  a  country  which  may 
be  said  to  be  the  very  counterpart  of  Uganda  in  its  rich¬ 
ness  and  beauty.  Here  the  people  use  such  huge  iron¬ 
headed  spears  with  short  handles,  that,  on  seeing  one  to¬ 
day,  my  people  remarked  that  they  were  better  fitted  for 
digging  potatoes  than  piercing  men.  Elephants,  as  we  had 
seen  by  their  devastations  during  the  last  two  marches, 
were  very  numerous  in  this  neighborhood.  Till  lately, 
a  party  from  Unyoro,  ivory-liunting,  had  driven  them 
away.  Lions  were  also  described  as  very  numerous  and 
destructive  to  human  life.  Antelopes  were  common  in 
the  jungle,  and  the  hippopotami,  though  frequenters  of 
the  plantain  garden  and  constantly  heard,  were  seldom 
seen  on  land  in  consequence  of  their  unsteady  habits. 

The  king’s  page  again  came,  begging  I  would  not  forget 
the  gun  and  stimulants,  and  bringing  with  him  the  things 
I  asked  for  —  two  spears,  one  shield,  one  dirk,  two  leop¬ 
ard-cat  skins,  and  two  sheets  of  small  antelope  skins.  I 
told  my  men  they  ought  to  shave  their  heads  and  bathe  in 
the  holy  river,  the  cradle  of  Moses  —  the  waters  of  which, 
Vol.  IV  — 10 


160 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


sweetened  with  sugar,  men  carry  all  the  way  from  Egypt 
to  Mecca,  to  sell  to  the  pilgrims.  But  Bombay,  who  is  a 
philosopher  of  the  Epicurean  school,  said,  “We  don’t 
look  on  those  things  in  the  same  fanciful  manner  that  you 
do;  we  are  contented  with  all  the  commonplaces  of  life, 
and  look  for  nothing  beyond  the  present.  If  things  don’t 
go  well,  it  is  God’s  will ;  and  if  they  do  go  well,  that  is  His 
will  also.” 

The  acting  chief  brought  a  present  of  one  cow,  one  goat, 
and  pombe,  with  a  mob  of  his  courtiers  to  pay  his  respects. 
He  promised  that  the  seven  boats,  which  are  all  the  sta¬ 
tion  could  muster,  would  be  ready  next  day,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  a  number  of  men  would  conduct  me  to  the 
shooting-ground.  He  asked  to  be  shown  the  books  of 
birds  and  animals,  and  no  sooner  saw  some  specimens  of 
Wolff’s  handiwork,  than,  in  utter  surprise,  he  exclaimed, 
i  ‘  I  know  how  these  are  done ;  a  bird  was  caught  and 
stamped  upon  the  paper,”  using  action  to  his  words,  and 
showing  what  he  meant,  while  all  his  followers  n’yanzig- 
ged  for  the  favor  of  the  exhibition. 

In  the  evening  I  strolled  in  the  antelope  parks,  enjoying 
the  scenery  and  sport  excessively.  A  noble  buck  n’sunnu, 
standing  by  himself,  was  the  first  thing  seen  this  side, 
though  a  herd  of  hartebeests  were  grazing  on  the  Usoga 
banks.  One  bullet  rolled  my  fine  friend  over,  but  the  rab¬ 
ble  looking  on  no  sooner  saw  the  hit  than  they  rushed 
upon  him  and  drove  him  off,  for  he  was  only  wounded.  A 
chase  ensued,  and  he  was  tracked  by  his  blood,  when  a 
pongo  (bush  hoc)  was  started  and  divided  the  party.  It 
also  brought  me  to  another  single  buck  n’sunnu,  which 
was  floored  at  once,  and  left  to  be  carried  home  by  some 
of  my  men  in  company  with  Waganda,  while  I  went  on, 
shot  a  third  n’sunnu  buck,  and  tracked  him  by  his  blood 
till  dark,  for  the  bullet  had  pierced  his  lungs  and  passed 
out  on  the  other  side.  Failing  to  find  him  on  the  way 
home,  I  shot,  besides  florikan  and  Guinea-chicks,  a  won¬ 
derful  goatsucker,  remarkable  for  the  exceeding  length 
of  some  of  its  feathers  floating  out  far  beyond  the  rest  in 


ON  THE  NILE  IN  CENTRAL  AFRICA 


161 


i 


both  wings.*  Returning  home,  I  found  the  men  who  had 
charge  of  the  dead  buck  all  in  a  state  of  excitement ;  they 
no  sooner  removed  his  carcass  than  two  lions  came  out  of 
the  jungle  and  lapped  his  blood.  All  the  Waganda  ran 
away  at  once ;  but  my  braves  feared  my  anger  more  than 
the  lions,  and  came  off  safely  with  the  buck  on  their  shoul¬ 
ders. 

Three  boats  arrived,  like  those  used  on  the  Murchison 
Creek,  and  when  I  demanded  the  rest,  as  well  as  a  decisive 
answer  about  going  to  Kamrasi’s,  the  acting  mkungu  said 
he  was  afraid  accidents  might  happen,  and  he  would  not 
take  me.  Nothing  would  frighten  this  pig-headed  crea¬ 
ture  into  compliance,  though  I  told  him  I  had  arranged 
with  the  king  to  make  the  Nile  the  channel  of  communica¬ 
tion  with  England.  I  therefore  applied  to  him  for  guides 
to  conduct  me  up  the  river,  and  ordered  Bombay  and  Ka- 
soro  to  obtain  fresh  orders  from  the  king,  as  all  future 
wazungu,  coming  to  Uganda  to  visit  or  trade,  would  pre¬ 
fer  the  passage  by  the  river.  I  shot  another  buck  in  the 
evening,  as  the  Waganda  loved  their  skins,  and  also  a  load 
of  Guinea-fowl  —  three,  four,  and  five  at  a  shot  —  as 
Kasoro  and  his  boys  prefer  them  to  any  thing. 

The  acting  officer  absconded,  but  another  man  came  in 
his  place,  and  offered  to  take  us  on  the  way  up  the  river 
to-morrow,  humbugging  Kasoro  into  the  belief  that  his 
road  to  the  palace  would  branch  off  from  the  first  stage, 
though  in  reality  it  was  here.  The  mkungu’s  women 
brought  pombe,  and  spent  the  day  gazing  at  us,  till,  in  the 
evening,  when  I  took  up  my  rifle,  one  ran  after  Bana  to 
see  him  shoot,  and  followed  like  a  man ;  but  the  only  sport 
she  got  was  on  an  ant-hill,  where  she  fixed  herself  some 
time,  popping  into  her  mouth  and  devouring  the  white 
ants  as  fast  as  they  emanated  from  their  cells;  for,  dis¬ 
daining  does,  I  missed  the  only  pongo  buck  I  got  a  shot  at, 
in  my  anxiety  to  show  the  fair  one  what  she  came  for. 

Reports  came  to-day  of  new  cruelties  at  the  palace. 

*  Named  by  Dr.  P.  L.  Sclater  Cosmetornis  Spekii.  The  seventh  pen 
feathers  are  double  the  length  of  the  ordinaries,  the  eighth  double  that 
of  the  seventh,  and  the  ninth  20  inches  long.  Bombay  says  the  same; 
bird  is  found  in  Uhiyow. 


162  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

Kasoro  improved  on  tlieir  off-hand  manslaughter  by  say¬ 
ing  that  two  kamravionas  and  two  sakibobos,  as  well  as 
all  the  old  wakungu  of  Sunna’s  time,  had  been  executed 
by  the  orders  of  King  Mtesa.  He  told  us,  moreover,  that 
if  Mtesa  ever  has  a  dream  that  his  father  directs  him  to 
kill  any  body  as  being  dangerous  to  his  person,  the  order 
is  religiously  kept.  I  wished  to  send  a  message  to  Mtesa 
by  an  officer  who  was  starting  at  once  to  pay  his  respects 
at  court;  but,  although  he  received  it,  and  promised  to 
deliver  it,  Kasoro  laughed  at  me  for  expecting  that  one 
word  of  it  would  ever  reach  the  king;  for  however  appro¬ 
priate  and  important  the  matter  might  be,  it  was  more 
than  any  body  dare  to  do  to  tell  the  king,  as  it  would  be 
an  infringement  of  the  rule  that  no  one  is  to  speak  to  him 
unless  in  answer  to  a  question.  My  second  buck  of  the 
first  day  was  brought  in  by  the  natives,  but  they  would 
not  allow  it  to  approach  the  hut  until  it  had  been  skinned ; 
and  I  found  their  reason  to  be  a  superstition  that  other¬ 
wise  no  others  would  ever  be  killed  by  the  inmates  of  that 
establishment. 

I  marched  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Nile,  at  a  considerable 
distance  from  the  water,  to  the  Isamba  Rapids,  passing 
through  rich  jungle  and  plantain  gardens.  Nango,  an  old 
friend,  and  district  officer  of  the  place,  first  refreshed  us 
with  a  dish  of  plantain-squash  and  dried  fish,  with  pombe. 
He  told  us  he  is  often  threatened  with  elephants,  but  he 
sedulously  keeps  them  off  with  charms ;  for  if  they  ever 
tasted  a  plantain  they  would  never  leave  the  garden  until 
they  had  cleared  it  out.  He  then  took  us  to  see  the  near¬ 
est  falls  of  the  Nile  —  extremely  beautiful,  but  very  con¬ 
fined.  The  water  ran  deep  between  its  banks,  which  were 
covered  with  fine  grass,  soft  cloudy  acacias,  and  festoons 
of  lilac  convolvuli ;  while  here  and  there,  where  the  land 
had  slipped  above  the  rapids,  bared  places  of  red  earth 
could  be  seen,  like  that  of  Devonshire;  there,  too,  the 
waters,  impeded  by  a  natural  dam,  looked  like  a  huge 
mill-pond,  sullen  and  dark,  in  which  two  crocodiles,  lying 
about,  were  looking  out  for  prey.  From  the  high  banks 
we  looked  down  upon  a  line  of  sloping  wooded  islets  lying 


ON  THE  NILE  IN  CENTRAL  AFRICA 


163 


across  the  stream,  which  divide  its  waters,  and,  by  inter¬ 
rupting  them,  cause  at  once  both  dam  and  rapids.  The 
whole  was  more  fairy-like,  wild,  and  romantic  than  —  I 
must  confess  that  my  thoughts  took  that  shape  —  any 
thing  I  ever  saw  outside  of  a  theatre.  It  was  exactly  the 
sort  of  place,  in  fact,  where,  bridged,  across  from  one 
side-slip  to  the  other,  on  a  moonlight  night,  brigands 
would  assemble  to  enact  some  dreadful  tragedy.  Even 
the  Wanguana  seemed  spell-bound  at  the  novel  beauty  of 
the  sight,  and  no  one  thought  of  amoving  till  hunger 
warned  us  night  was  setting  in,  and  we  had  better  look 
out  for  lodgings. 

Start  again,  and  after  drinking  pombe  with  Nango, 
when  we  heard  that  three  wakungu  had  been  seized  at 
Kari  in  consequence  of  the  murder,  the  march  was  recom¬ 
menced,  but  soon  after  stopped  by  the  mischievous  mach¬ 
inations  of  our  guide,  who  pretended  it  was  too  late  in 
the  day  to  cross  the  jungles  on  ahead,  either  by  the  road 
to  the  source  or  the  palace,  and  therefore  would  not  move 
till  the  morning;  then,  leaving  us  on  the  pretext  of  busi¬ 
ness,  he  vanished,  and  was  never  seen  again.  A  small 
black  fly,  with  thick  shoulders  and  bullet-head,  infests  the 
place,  and  torments  the  naked  arms  and  legs  of  the  people 
with  its  sharp  stings  to  an  extent  that  must  render  life 
miserable  to  them. 

After  a  long  struggling  march,  plodding  through  huge 
grasses  and  jungle,  we  reached  a  district  which  I  can  not 
otherwise  describe  than  by  calling  it  a  “  Church  Estate.’ 9 
It  is  dedicated  in  some  mysterious  manner  to  Lubari  (Al¬ 
mighty),  and  although  the  king  appeared  to  have  author¬ 
ity  over  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  it,  yet  others  had  ap¬ 
parently  a  sacred  character,  exempting  them  from  the 
civil  power,  and  he  had  no  right  to  dispose  of  the  land 
itself.  In  this  territory  there  are  small  villages  only  at 
every  fifth  mile,  for  there  is  no  road,  and  the  lands  run 
high  again,  while,  from  want  of  a  guide,  we  often  lost  the 
track.  It  now  transpired  that  Budja,  when  he  told  at  the 
palace  that  there  was  no  road  down  the  banks  of  the  Nile, 
did  so  in  consequence  of  his  fear  that  if  he  sent  my  whole 


i 


164  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

party  here  they  would  rob  these  church  lands,  and  so 
bring  him  into  a  scrape  with  the  wizards  or  ecclesiastical 
authorities.  Had  my  party  not  been  under  control,  we 
could  not  have  put  up  here;  but  on  my  being  answerable 
that  no  thefts  should  take  place,  the  people  kindly  con¬ 
sented  to  provide  us  with  board  and  lodgings,  and  we 
found  them  very  obliging.  One  elderly  man,  half-witted 
—  they  said  the  king  had  driven  his  senses  from  him  by 
seizing  his  house  and  family  —  came  at  once  on  our  ar¬ 
rival,  laughing  and  singing  in  a  loose,  jaunty,  maniacal 
manner,  carrying  odd  sticks,  shells,  and  a  bundle  of 
mbugu  rags,  which  he  deposited  before  me,  dancing  and 
singing  again,  then  retreating  and  bringing  some  more, 
with  a  few  plantains  from  a  garden,  which  I  was  to  eat, 
as  kings  lived  upon  flesh,  and  “  poor  Tom  ”  wanted  some, 
for  he  lived  with  lions  and  elephants  in  a  hovel  beyond  the 
gardens,  and  his  belly  was  empty.  He  was  precisely  a 
black  specimen  of  the  English  parish  idiot. 

At  last,  with  a  good  push  for  it,  crossing  hills  and 
threading  huge  grasses,  as  well  as  extensive  village  plan¬ 
tations  lately  devastated  by  elephants  —  they  had  eaten 
all  that  was  eatable,  and  what  would  not  serve  for  food 
they  had  destroyed  with  their  trunks,  not  one  plantain  nor 
one  hut  being  left  entire  —  we  arrived  at  the  extreme  end 
of  the  journey,  the  farthest  point  ever  visited  by  the  ex¬ 
pedition  on  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  as  King  Mtesa’s 
palace,  and  just  forty  miles  east  of  it. 

We  were  well  rewarded;  for  the  “  stones,”  as  the  Wa- 
ganda  call  the  falls,  was  by  far  the  most  interesting  sight 
I  had  seen  in  Africa.  Every  body  ran  to  see  them  at  once, 
though  the  march  had  been  long  and  fatiguing,  and  even 
my  sketch-book  was  called  into  play.  Though  beautiful, 
the  scene  was  not  exactly  what  I  expected ;  for  the  broad 
surface  of  the  lake  was  shut  out  from  view  by  a  spur  of 
hill,  and  the  falls,  about  12  feet  deep,  and  400  to  500  feet 
broad,  were  broken  by  rocks.  Still  it  was  a  sight  that  at¬ 
tracted  one  to  it  for  hours  —  the  roar  of  the  waters,  the 
thousands  of  passenger-fish,  leaping  at  the  falls  with  ail 
their  might,  the  Wasoga  and  Waganda  fishermen  coming 


OUST  THE  NILE  IN  CENTRAL  AFRICA 


165 


out  in  boats  and  taking  post  on  all  the  rocks  with  rod  and 
hook,  hippopotami  and  crocodiles  lying  sleepily  on  the 
water,  the  ferry  at  work  above  the  falls,  and  cattle  driven 
down  to  drink  at  the  margin  of  the  lake,  made,  in  all,  with 
the  pretty  nature  of  the  country  —  small  hills,  grassy- 
topped,  with  trees  in  the  folds,  and  gardens  on  the  lower 
slopes  —  as  interesting  a  picture  as  one  could  wish  to  see. 

The  expedition  had  now  performed  its  functions.  I 
saw  that  old  Father  Nile  without  any  doubt  rises  in  the 
Victoria  N’yanza,  and,  as  I  had  foretold,  that  lake  is  the 
great  source  of  the  holy  river  which  cradled  the  first  ex¬ 
pounder  of  our  religious  belief.  I  mourned,  however, 
when  I  thought  of  how  much  I  had  lost  by  the  delays  in 
the  journey  having  deprived  me  of  the  pleasure  of  going 
to  look  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  N’yanza  to  see 
what  connection  there  was,  by  the  strait  so  often  spoken 
of,  with  it  and  the  other  lake  where  the  Waganda  went  to 
get  their  salt,  and  from  which  another  river  flowed  to  the 
north,  making  “  Usoga  an  island.”  But  I  felt  I  ought  to 
be  content  with  what  I  had  been  spared  to  accomplish ;  for 
I  had  seen  full  half  of  the  lake,  and  had  information  given 
me  of  the  other  half,  by  means  of  which  I  knew  all  about 
the  lake,  as  far,  at  least,  as  the  chief  objects  of  geograph¬ 
ical  importance  were  concerned. 

Let  us  now  sum  up  the  whole  and  see  what  it  is  worth. 
Comparative  information  assured  me  that  there  was  as 
much  water  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  lake  as  there  is  on 
the  western  —  if  any  thing,  rather  more.  The  most  re¬ 
mote  waters,  or  top  head  of  the  Nile ,  is  the  southern  end 
of  the  lake,  situated  close  on  the  third  degree  of  south  lat¬ 
itude,  which  gives  to  the  Nile  the  surprising  length,  in  di¬ 
rect  measurement,  rolling  over  thirty-four  degrees  of 
latitude,  of  above  2,300  miles,  or  more  than  one-eleventh 
of  the  circumference  of  our  globe.  Now  from  this  south¬ 
ern  point,  round  by  the  west,  to  where  the  great  Nile 
stream  issues,  there  is  only  one  feeder  of  any  importance, 
and  that  is  the  Kitangide  river ;  while  from  the  southern¬ 
most  point,  round  by  the  east,  to  the  strait,  there  are  no 
rivers  at  all  of  any  importance;  for  the  traveled  Arabs 


166 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


one  and  all  aver,  that  from  the  west  of  the  snow-clad  Kili- 
mandjaro  to  the  lake  where  it  is  cut  by  the  second  degree, 
and  also  the  first  degree  of  south  latitude,  there  are  salt 
lakes  and  salt  plains,  and  the  country  is  hilly,  not  unlike 
Unyamuezi;  but  they  said  there  were  no  great  rivers,  and 
the  country  was  so  scantily  watered,  having  only  occa¬ 
sional  runnels  and  rivulets,  that  they  always  had  to  make 
long  marches  in  order  to  find  water  when  they  went  on 
their  trading  journeys;  and  farther,  those  Arabs  who 
crossed  the  strait  when  they  reached  Usoga,  crossed  no 
river  either. 

There  remains  to  be  disposed  of  the  “  salt  lake,”  which 
1  believe  is  not  salt,  but  a  fresh-water  lake ;  and  my  rea¬ 
sons  are,  as  before  stated,  that  the  natives  call  all  lakes 
salt  if  they  find  salt  beds  or  salt  islands  in  such  places. 
Dr.  Karpf,  when  he  obtained  a  sight  of  the  Kenia  Moun¬ 
tain,  heard  from  the  natives  there  that  there  was  a  salt 
lake  to  its  northward,  and  he  also  heard  that  a  river  ran 
from  Kenia  toward  the  Nile.  If  his  information  was  true 
on  this  latter  point,  then,  without  doubt,  there  must  exist 
some  connection  between  this  river  and  the  salt  lake  I 
have  heard  of,  and  this,  in  all  probability,  would  also  es¬ 
tablish  a  connection  between  my  salt  lake  and  his  salt 
lake,  which  he  heard  was  called  Baringo.1  In  no  view 
that  can  be  taken  of  it,  however,  does  this  unsettled  mat¬ 
ter  touch  the  established  fact  that  the  head  of  the  Nile  is 
in  3  degrees  south  latitude,  where,  in  the  year  1858, 1  dis¬ 
covered  the  head  of  the  Victoria  N’yanza  to  be. 

I  now  christened  the  4  ‘  stones  ’  ’  Ripon  Falls,  after  the 
nobleman  who  presided  over  the  Royal  Geographical  So¬ 
ciety  when  my  expedition  was  gotten  up ;  and  the  arm  of 
water  from  which  the  Nile  issued,  Napoleon  Channel,  in 
token  of  respect  to  the  French  Geographical  Society,  for  . 
the  honor  they  had  done  me,  just  before  leaving  England, 
in  presenting  me  with  their  gold  medal  for  the  discovery 

of  the  Victoria  NVanza. 

%/ 

1  It  is  questionable  whether  or  not  this  word  is  a  corruption  of 
Bahr  (sea  of)  Ingo. 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY  IN  AFRICA. 


BY 

David  Livingstone. 

David  Livingstone  was  born  near  Glasgow  in  1813,  died  in  Africa 
in  1873  and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey.  In  1840  lie  went  to 
South  Africa  as  a  missionary,  remaining  there  nine  years.  From  1849 
to  1856  he  explored  the  interior  of  Africa.  In  1864  he  started  on 
another  expedition  and  was  not  heard  from  for  years.  The  “  New 
York  Herald  ”  sent  Mr.  Henry  M.  Stanley  in  search  of  him,  and  he  was 
found  at  Ujiji  in  1871  as  related  below. 

OCTOBER  23,  1871  — At  dawn  off,  and  go  to  Ujiji. 
Welcomed  by  all  the  Arabs,  particularly  by  Mo- 
enyeghere.  I  was  now  reduced  to  a  skeleton;  but 
the  market  being  held  daily,  and  all  kinds  of  native  food 
brought  to  it,  I  hoped  that  food  and  rest  would  soon  re¬ 
store  me ;  but  in  the  evening  my  people  came  and  told  me 
that  Shereef  had  sold  off  all  my  goods,  and  Moenyeghere 
confirmed  it  by  saying,  4  4  We  protested,  but  he  did  not 
leave  a  single  yard  of  calico  out  of  three  thousand,  nor  a 
string  of  beads  out  of  seven  hundred  pounds.  ’  ’  This  was 
distressing.  I  had  made  up  my  mind,  if  I  could  not  get 
people  at  Ujiji,  to  wait  till  men  should  come  from  the 
coast;  but  to  wait  in  beggary  was  what  I  never  contem¬ 
plated,  and  I  now  felt  miserable.  Shereef  was  evidently 
a  moral  idiot,  for  he  came  without  shame  to  shake  hands 
with  me,  and  when  I  refused  assumed  an  air  of  displeas¬ 
ure,  as  having  been  badly  treated;  and  afterward  came 
with  his  “  Balghere  ”  (good-luck  salutation),  twice  a  day, 
and,  on  leaving,  said,  “  I  am  going  to  pray,”  till  I  told 
him  that,  were  I  an  Arab,  his  hand  and  both  ears  would 
be  cut  off  for  thieving,  as  he  knew,  and  I  wanted  no  saluta¬ 
tions  from  him.  In  my  distress  it  was  annoying  to  see 
Shereef ’s  slaves  passing  from  the  market  with  all  the 
good  things  that  my  goods  had  bought. 

From  u  The  Last  Journal  of  David  Livingstone  in  Central  Africa.” 
Edited  by  Horace  Waller,  F.  R.  G.  S.  London. 

167 


168 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


October  24dh. —  My  property  liad  been  sold  to  Shereef ’s 
friends  at  merely  nominal  prices.  Syed  bin  Majid,  a  good 
man,  proposed  that  they  should  be  returned,  and  the  ivory 
be  taken  from  Shereef;  but  they  would  not  restore  the 
stolen  property,  though  they  knew  it  to  be  stolen.  Chris¬ 
tians  would  have  acted  differently,  even  those  of  the  low¬ 
est  classes.  I  felt,  in  my  destitution,  as  if  I  were  the  man 
who  went  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  and  fell 
among  thieves;  but  I  could  not  hope  for  priest,  Levite, 
or  good  Samaritan  to  come  by  on  either  side;  but  one 
morning  Syed  bin  Majid  said  to  me,  “  Now  this  is  the  first 
time  we  have  been  alone  together ;  I  have  no  goods,  but  I 
have  ivory;  let  me,  I  pray  you,  sell  some  ivory,  and  give 
the  goods  to  you.”  This  was  encouraging;  but  I  said, 
“  Not  yet,  but  by-and-by.  ’ ’  I  had  still  a  few  barter  goods 
left,  which  I  had  taken  the  precaution  to  deposit  with  Mo¬ 
hamad  bin  Saleh  before  going  to  Manyeuma,  in  case  of 
returning  in  extreme  need.  But  when  my  spirits  were  at 
their  lowest  ebb  the  good  Samaritan  was  close  at  hand, 
for  one  morning  Susi  came  running,  at  the  top  of  his 
speed,  and  gasped  out,  “  An  Englishman!  I  see  him!” 
and  off  he  darted  to  meet  him.  The  American  flag  at  the 
head  of  a  caravan  told  me  of  the  nationality  of  the  stran¬ 
ger.  Bales  of  goods,  baths  of  tin,  huge  kettles,  cooking- 
pots,  tents,  etc,,  made  me  think,  1  1  This  must  be  a  luxuri¬ 
ous  traveler,  and  not  one  at  his  wits’  end  like  me.” 

October  2 8th. — It  was  Henry  Moreland  Stanley,  the 
travelling  correspondent  of  the  Neiv  York  Herald ,  sent  by 
James  Gordon  Bennett,  junior,  at  an  expense  of  more  than 
$20,000,  to  obtain  accurate  information  about  Dr.  Liv¬ 
ingstone  if  living,  and  if  dead,  to  bring  home  my  bones. 
The  news  he  had  to  tell  to  one  who  had  been  two  full  years 
without  any  tidings  from  Europe  made  my  whole  frame 
thrill.  The  terrible  fate  that  had  befallen  France  —  the 
telegraphic  cables  successfully  laid  in  the  Atlantic  —  the 
election  of  General  Grant  —  the  death  of  good  Lord  Clar¬ 
endon,  my  constant  friend  —  the  proof  that  Her  Majesty’s 
Government  had  not  forgotten  me  in  voting  $5,000  for 
supplies,  and  many  other  points  of  interest,  revived  emo- 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY  IN  AFRICA 


169 


tion  that  had  lain  dormant  in  Manyeuma.  Appetite  re¬ 
turned;  and  instead  of  the  spare,  tasteless  two  meals  a 
day,  I  ate  four  times  daily,  and  in  a  week  began  to  feel 
strong.  I  am  not  of  a  demonstrative  turn  —  as  cold,  in¬ 
deed,  as  we  islanders  are  usually  reputed  to  be —  but  this 
disinterested  kindness  of  Mr.  Bennett,  so  nobly  carried 
into  effect  by  Mr.  Stanley,  was  simply  overwhelming.  I 
really  do  feel  extremely  grateful,  and  at  the  same  time  I 
am  a  little  ashamed  at  not  being  more  worthy  of  the  gen¬ 
erosity.  Mr.  Stanley  has  done  his  part  with  untiring  en¬ 
ergy;  good  judgment,  in  the  teeth  of  very  serious  ob¬ 
stacles.  His  helpmates  turned  out  depraved  blackguards, 
who,  by  their  excesses  at  Zanzibar  and  elsewhere,  had 
ruined  their  constitutions,  and  prepared  their  systems 
to  be  tit  provender  for  the  grave.  They  had  used  up  their 
strength  by  wickedness,  and  were  of  next  to  no  service, 
but  rather  down-drafts,  and  unbearable  drags  to  progress. 

November  1 6th. —  As  Tanganyika  explorations  are  said 
by  Mr.  Stanley  to  be  an  object  of  interest  to  Sir  Roderick, 
we  go  at  his  expense,  and  by  his  men,  to  the  north  of  the 
Lake. 

[Dr.  Livingstone  on  a  previous  occasion  wrote  from  the 
interior  of  Africa  to  the  effect  that  Lake  Tanganyika 
poured  its  waters  into  the  Albert  Nyanza  Lake  of  Baker. 
At  the  time,  perhaps,  he  hardly  realized  the  interest  that 
such  an  announcement  was  likely  to  occasion.  He  was 
now  shown  the  importance  of  ascertaining  by  actual  ob¬ 
servation  whether  the  junction  really  existed,  and  for  this 
purpose  he  started  with  Mr.  Stanley  to  explore  the  region 
of  the  supposed  connecting  link  in  the  north,  so  as  to  ver¬ 
ify  the  statements  of  the  Arabs.] 

November  20th,  21st. —  Passed  a  very  crowded  popula¬ 
tion,  the  men  calling  us  to  land,  to  be  fleeced  and  insulted 
by  way  of  Mahonga  or  Mutuari:  they  threw  stones  in 
rage,  and  one,  apparently  slung,  alighted  close  to  the  ca¬ 
noe.  We  came  on  until  after  dark,  and  landed  under  a 
cliff  to  rest  and  cook,  but  a  crowd  came  and  made  inquir¬ 
ies  ;  then  a  few  more  came,  as  if  to  investigate  more  per¬ 
fectly:  they  told  us  to  sleep,  and  to-morrow  friendship 


170  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

should  be  made.  We  put  our  luggage  on  board,  and  set  a 
watch  on  the  cliff.  A  number  of  men  came  along,  cower¬ 
ing  behind  rocks,  which  then  aroused  suspicion,  and  we 
slipped  off  quietly:  they  called  after  us,  as  men  balked  of 
their  prey.  We  went  on  five  hours  and  slept,  and  then 
this  morning  came  on  to  Magala,  where  the  people  are 
civil ;  but  Mukumba  had  war  with  some  one.  The  Lake 
narrows  to  about  ten  miles  as  the  western  mountains  come 
toward  the  eastern  range,  that  being  about  north-north¬ 
west  magnetic.  Many  stumps  of  trees  killed  by  water 
show  an  encroachment  by  the  Lake  on  the  east  side.  A 
transverse  range  seems  to  shut  in  the  north  end,  but  there 
.  is  open  country  to  the  east  and  west  of  its  ends. 

November  25th. — We  came  on  about  two  hours  to  some 
villages  on  a  high  bank,  where  Mukumba  is  living.  The 
chief, young,  good-looking  man  like  Mugala,  came  and  wel¬ 
comed  us.  Our  friend  of  yesterday  now  declared  as  posi¬ 
tively  as  before  that  the  water  of  Lusize  flowed  into  Tan¬ 
ganyika,  and  not  the  way  he  said  yesterday !  I  have  not 
the  smallest  doubt  but  Tanganyika  discharges  somewhere, 
though  we  may  be  unable  to  find  it.  Lusize  goes  or  comes 
from  Luanda  and  Karagwe.  This  is  hopeful,  but  I  sus¬ 
pend  my  judgment.  War  rages  between  Mukamba  and 
Wasmashanga,  or  Uasmasane,  a  chief  between  this  and 
Lusize;  ten  men  were  killed  of  Mukamba’s  people  a  few 
days  ago.  Vast  numbers  of  fishermen  ply  their  calling 
night  and  day  as  far  as  we  can  see.  Tanganyika  closes  in 
except  at  one  point  north  and  by  west  of  us.  The  highest 
point  of  the  western  range,  about  seven  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  is  Sumburuza.  We  are  to  go  to-morrow  to 
Lohinga,  elder  brother  of  Mukamba,  near  Lusize,  and  the 
chief  follows  us  next  day. 

November  2 6th. —  Sunday.  Mr.  Stanley  has  severe  fe¬ 
ver.  I  gave  Mukamba  nine  dotis  and  nine  fundos.  The 
end  of  Tanganyika,  seen  clearly,  is  rounded  off  about 
4°,  broad  from  east  to  west. 

November  27th. —  Mr.  Stanley  is  better.  We  started 
at  sunset  westward,  then  northward  for  seven  hours,  and 
at  4  a.  m.  reached  Lohinga,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lusize. 


LIVINGSTONE  AND  STANLEY  IN  AFRICA 


171 


By  the  arrival  of  the  fast  Ramadan  on  the  14th  of  No¬ 
vember,  and  a  Nautical  Almanac,  I  discovered  that  I  was 
on  that  date  twenty-one  days  too  fast  in  my  reckoning. 
Mr.  Stanley  used  some  very  strong  arguments  in  favor  of 
my  going  home,  recruiting  my  strength,  getting  artificial 
teeth,  and  then  returning  to  finish  my  task;  but  my  judg¬ 
ment  said,  ‘  ‘  All  your  friends  will  wish  you  to  make  a 
complete  work  of  the  exploration  of  the  sources  of  the 
Nile  before  you  retire.”  My  daughter  Agnes  says, 
‘ 4  Much  as  I  wish  you  to  come  home,  I  would  rather  that 
you  finished  your  work  to  your  own  satisfaction  than  re¬ 
turn  merely  to  gratify  me.”  Rightly  and  nobly  said,  my 
darling  Nannie.  Vanity  whispers  pretty  loudly,  4  4  She  is 
a  chip  of  the  old  block.  ’  ’  My  blessings  on  her  and  all  the 
rest. 

I  propose  to  go  from  Unyanyembe  to  Fipa;  then  round 
the  south  end  of  Tanganyika,  Tambete  or  Mbete;  then 
across  the  Chambeze,  and  round  south  of  Lake  Bang- 
weolo,  and  due  west  to  the  ancient  fountains ;  leaving  the 
underground  excavations  till  after  visiting  Katanga. 
This  route  will  serve  to  certify  that  no  other  sources  of 
the  Nile  can  come  from  the  south  without  being  seen  by 
me.  No  one  will  cut  me  out  after  this  exploration  is  ac¬ 
complished  ;  and  may  the  good  Lord  help  me  to  show  my¬ 
self  one  of  His  stout-hearted  servants,  an  honor  to  my 
children,  and  perhaps  to  my  country  and  race. 

Our  march  extended  from  December  26th,  1871,  till 
February  18th,  1872,  or  fifty-four  days.  This  was  over 
three  hundred  miles,  and  thankful  I  am  to  reach  Unyan¬ 
yembe,  and  the  Tembe  Kwikuru. 

I  find,  also,  that  the  two  head  men  selected  by  the  noto¬ 
rious  but  covert  slave-trader,  Ludha  Damji,  have  been 
plundering  my  stores  from  October  20th,  1870,  to  Febru¬ 
ary  18th,  1872,  or  nearly  sixteen  months.  One  has  died 
of  small-pox;  and  the  other  not  only  plundered  my  stores, 
but  has  broken  open  the  lock  of  Mr.  Stanley’s  store-room 
and  plundered  his  goods.  He  declared  that  all  my  goods 
were  safe;  but  when  the  list  was  referred  to,  and  the 
goods  counted,  and  he  was  questioned  as  to  the  serious 


172  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

loss,  he  at  last  remembered  a  bale  of  seven  pieces  of  meri- 
kano,  and  three  kanike,  or  three  hundred  and  four  yards, 
that  he  evidently  had  hidden.  On  questioning  him  about 
the  boxes  brought,  he  was  equally  ignorant,  but  at  last 
said,  “  Oh!  I  remember  a  box  of  brandy,  where  it  went, 
and  every  one  knows  as  well  as  I.” 

February  18 th,  1872. —  This  and  Mr.  Stanley’s  goods 
being  found  in  his  possession,  made  me  resolve  to  have 
done  with  him.  My  losses  by  the  robberies  of  the  Banian 
employed  slaves  are  more  than  made  up  by  Mr.  Stanley, 
who  has  given  me  twelve  bales  of  calico,  nine  loads,  equal 
to  fourteen  and  a  half  bags  of  beads,  thirty-eight  coils  of 
brass  wire,  a  tent,  boat,  hath,  cooking-pots,  twelve  copper 
sheets,  air-beds,  trowsers,  jackets,  etc.  Indeed,  I  am, 
again  quite  set  up ;  and  as  soon  as  he  can  send  men,  not 
slaves,  from  the  coast,  I  go  to  my  work,  with  a  fair  pros¬ 
pect  of  finishing  it. 

February  20 th. — To  my  great  joy,  I  got  four  flannel 
shirts  from  Agnes,  and  I  was  delighted  to  find  that  two 
pairs  of  fine  English  hoots  had  most  considerately  been 
sent  by  my  friend,  Mr.  Waller.  Mr.  Stanley  and  I  meas¬ 
ured  the  calico,  and  found  that  seven  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  and  three-quarter  yards  were  wanting,  also  two 
frasilahs  of  samsam,  and  one  case  of  brandy.  Othman 
pretended  sickness,  and  blamed  the  dead  men,  but  pro¬ 
duced  a  bale  of  calico  hidden  in  Tliani’s  goods;  this  re¬ 
duced  the  missing  quantity  to  four  hundred  and  thirty-six 
and  a  half  yards. 

February  23 d. —  Send  to  governor  for  a  box  which  he 
has  kept  for  four  years :  it  is  all  eaten  by  white  ants.  Two 
fine  guns  and  a  pistol  are  quite  destroyed,  all  the  wood¬ 
work  being  eaten.  The  brandy-bottles  were  broken,  to 
make  it  appear  as  if  by  an  accident ;  hut  the  corks  being 
driven  in,  and  corks  of  maize  cobs  used  in  their  place, 
show  that  a  thief  has  drunk  the  brandy  and  then  broken 
the  bottles.  The  tea  was  spoiled,  but  the  china  was  safe, 
and  the  cheese  good. 

March  14 th. —  Mr.  Stanley  leaves.  I  commit  to  his  care 
my  journal  sealed  with  five  seals :  the  impressions  on 


m  KHIVA 


173 


them  are  those  of  an  American  gold  coin,  anna,  and  half 
anna,  and  cake  of  paint  with  royal  arms.  Positively  not 
to  he  opened. 

[We  must  leave  each  heart  to  know  its  own  bitterness, 
as  the  old  explorer  retraces  his  steps  to  the  tembe  at  Kwi- 
liara,  there  to  hope  and  pray  that  good  fortune  may  at¬ 
tend  his  companion  of  the  last  few  months  on  his  journey 
to  the  coast ;  while  Stanley,  duly  impressed  with  the  im¬ 
portance  of  that  which  he  can  reveal  to  the  outer  world, 
and  laden  with  a  responsibility  which  by  this  time  can  be 
fully  comprehended,  thrusts  on  through  every  difficulty.] 


IN  KHIVA. 

BY 

A.  Vambery. 

Arminius  or  Herman  Vambery  was  born  in  Hungary  in  1832,  and 
was  a  noted  orientalist  and  historian.  He  lived  many  years  in  Con¬ 
stantinople  and  in  1863-4  visited  Persia,  Khiva,  Bokhara,  Samarcand, 
Herat,  and  other  parts  of  Central  Asia,  assuming  the  character  of  a 
traveling  dervish  (or  a  Persian  monk  vowed  to  proverty)  in  order  to 
penetrate  into  those  places  where  Western  folk  were  not  allowed  to  go. 
His  life  was  in  constant  danger,  but  his  experiences  enabled  him  to 
write  much  that  was  new  about  the  places  he  visited.  He  was  an 
accomplished  linguist  and  published  among  others  a  German-Turkish 
Dictionary.  His  career  is  a  remarkable  evidence  of  how  much  a 
man  may  do  who  makes  himself  master  of  a  subject. 

THE  reader  will  easily  imagine  in  what  a  state  my 
spirits  were  when  I  found  myself  before  the  walls 
of  Khiva,  if  he  reflects  on  the  risks  to  which  any 
suspicion  of  my  disguise  would  expose  me,  as  soon  as  a 
first  introduction  should  discover  my  European  features. 
I  was  well  aware  that  the  klian  of  Khiva,  whose  cruelty 
was  displeasing  to  the  Tartars  themselves,  would,  in 
case  he  felt  any  distrust,  become  far  severer  to  me  than 

From  11  Travels  in  Central  Asia.”  London. 


174 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


the  other  Turkomans.  I  had  heard  that  the  khan  was  in 
the  habit  of  at  once  making  slaves  of  all  strangers  of 
doubtful  character;  that  he  had,  not  long  before,  so 
treated  a  Hindustani,  who  claimed  to  be  of  princely 
origin,  and  who  was  now,  like  the  other  slaves,  employed 
in  dragging  along  the  artillery  carriages.  My  nerves 
were  all  strung  to  the  highest  point,  but  I  was  not  intimi¬ 
dated.  I  had,  from  constant  risk,  become  inured  to  it. 
Death,  the  least  serious  result  of  my  enterprise,  had  now 
been  floating  continually  before  my  eyes  for  three  months, 
and,  instead  of  trembling;  I  considered  how,  on  any 
pressing  emergency,  I  might  by  some  expedient  get  the 
better  of  the  watchfulness  of  the  superstitious  tyrant. 
On  the  journey  I  had  acquired  exact  information  respect¬ 
ing  all  the  distinguished  Khivites  who  had  been  in  Con¬ 
stantinople.  They  named  to  me  oftenest  a  certain 
Shiikrullah  Bay,  who  had  been  in  residence  ten  years  at 
the  court  of  the  sultan.  Of  his  person  I  had  a  half  recol¬ 
lection,  for  I  had  seen  him  several  times  at  the  house  of 
Ali  Pasha,  the  present  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  This 
Shukrullah  Bey,  thought  I,  only  knows  Stamboul  and  its 
language,  its  manners  and  its  great  personages :  whether 
he  will  or  not,  I  must  compel  him  to  admit  a  previous 
knowledge  of  me ;  and  as  I  can  deceive,  personating  the 
Stambouli,  the  Stambouli  himself,  the  ex-ambassador  of 
the  Khan  of  Khiva  will  never  be  able  to  disavow  me,  and 
must  serve  my  purpose. 

At  the  very  entrance  of  the  gate  we  were  met  by  several 
pious  Khivites,  who  handed  up  to  us  bread  and  dried 
fruits  as  we  sat  upon  our  camels.  For  years  so  numerous 
a  troop  of  had j is  had  not  arrived  in  Khiva.  All  stared 
at  us  in  astonishment,  and  the  exclamations  “  Aman 
eszen  geldinghiz  ”  (welcome)!  “  Ha  shah  bazim!  Ha 
arszlanim  ”  (ah!  my  falcon,  my  lion)  !  resounded  on  all 
sides  in  our  ears.  On  entering  the  bazar,  Hadji  Bilal  in¬ 
toned  a  telkin.  My  voice  was  heard  above  them  all,  and 
I  felt  real  emotion  when  the  people  impressed  their  kisses 
upon  my  hands  and  feet  —  yes,  upon  the  very  rags  which 
hung  from  me.  In  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the 


m  IvHIVA 


175 


country,  we  dismounted  at  the  caravanserai.  This  served 
also  as  a  custom-house,  where  the  new  arrivals  of  men 
and  merchandise  are  subjected  to  severe  examination. 
The  testimony  of  the  chiefs  of  the  caravans  have,  as  is 
natural,  the  greatest  weight  in  the  balance.  The  functions 
of  chief  of  the  customs  are  tilled  in  Khiva  by  the  principal 
mehrem  (a  sort  of  chamberlain  and  confidant  of  the 
khan).  Scarcely  had  this  official  addressed  the  ordinary 
questions  to  our  kervanbashi,  when  the  Afghan  pressed 
forward  and  called  out  aloud,  “  We  have  brought  to 
Khiva  three  interesting  quadrupeds  and  a  no  less  interest¬ 
ing  biped.”  The  first  part  of  this  pleasantry  was,  of 
course,  applied  to  the  buffaloes,  animals  not  before  seen 
in  Khiva;  but  as  the  second  part  was  pointed  at  me,  it 
was  no  wonder  that  many  eyes  were  immediately  turned 
upon  me,  and  amid  the  whispering  it  was  not  difficult  to 
distinguish  the  words  “  djansiz  ”*  (spy),  “  Frenghi,” 
and  “  Urus  ”  (Russian).  I  made  an  effort  to  prevent  the 
blood  rising  to  my  cheeks,  and  was  upon  the  point  of 
withdrawing,  when  the  mehrem  ordered  me  to  remain. 
He  applied  himself  to  my  case,  using  exceedingly  uncivil 
expressions.  I  was  about  to  reply,  when  Hadji  Salih, 
whose  exterior  inspired  respect,  came  in,  and,  entirely 
ignorant  of  what  had  passed,  represented  me  in  the  most 
flattering  colors  to  my  inquisitor,  who,  surprised,  told  me, 
smiling  as  lie  did  so,  to  take  a  seat  by  his  side.  Hadji 
Salih  made  a  sign  to  me  to  accept  the  invitation,  but,y 
assuming  the  air  of  one  highly  offended,  and  throwing 
an  angry  look  upon  the  mehrem,  I  retired.  My  first  step 
was  to  go  to  Shukrullah  Bey,  who,  without  filling  any 
functions,  occupied  a  cell  at  that  time  in  the  medresse  of 
Mehemmed  Emin-Khan,  the  finest  edifice  in  Khiva.  I  an¬ 
nounced  mvself  to  him  as  an  effendi  arrived  from  Stam- 
•/ 

boul,  with  the  observation  that  I  had  made  his  acquaint¬ 
ance  there,  and  had  wished,  in  passing,  to  wait  upon  him. 
The  arrival  of  an  effendi  in  Khiva,  an  occurrence  so  un¬ 
precedented,  occasioned  the  old  man  some  surprise.  He 
came  forward  himself  to  meet  me,  and  his  wonder  in- 

*  From  the  Arabic  word  djasus  (spy). 

Vol.  IV  — 11 


176 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


creased  when  he  saw  a  mendicant,  terribly  disfigured  and 
in  rags,  standing  before  him :  not  that  this  prevented  him 
from  admitting  me.  I  had  only  interchanged  a  few 
words  with  him,  in  the  dialect  of  Stamboul,  when,  with 
ever-increasing  eagerness,  he  put  question  upon  question 
concerning  his  numerous  friends  in  the  Turkish  capital, 
and  the  recent  doings  and  position  of  the  Ottoman 
empire  since  the  accession  of  the  present  sultan.  As  I 
before  said,  I  was  fully  confident  in  the  part  I  was  play¬ 
ing.  On  his  side,  Shiikrullah  Bey  could  not  contain  him¬ 
self  for  joy  when  I  gave  him  news  of  his  acquaintances 
there  in  detail.  Still  he  felt  not  the  less  astonishment. 
“  In  God’s  name,  effendi,  what  induced  you  to  come  to 
this  fearful  country,  and  to  come  to  us,  too,  from  that 
paradise  on  earth,  from  Stamboul?  ”  Sighing,  I  ex¬ 
claimed,  “  Ah!  pir  ”  (spiritual  chief),  laid  one  hand  on 
my  eyes,  a  sign  of  obedience,  and  the  excellent  old  man, 
a  Mussulman  of  tolerably  good  education,  could  not  mis¬ 
apprehend  my  meaning,  i.  e .,  that  I  belonged  to  some 
order  of  dervishes,  and  had  been  sent  by  my  pir  (chief 
of  my  order)  upon  a  journey,  which  is  a  duty  that  every 
murid  (disciple  of  an  order  of  dervishes)  must  fulfill  at 
the  hazard  of  his  life.  My  explanation  rejoiced  him;  he 
but  asked  the  name  of  the  order.  On  my  mentioning  the 
Nakishbendi,  he  at  once  understood  that  Bokhara  was  the 
aim  of  my  journey.  He  wished  immediately  to  obtain  for 
me  quarters  in  the  medresse  before  named  but  I  men¬ 
tioned  at  the  same  time  my  situation  with  respect  to  my 
companions.  I  then  almost  immediately  withdrew,  with 
the  promise  soon  to  repeat  my  visit. 

On  returning  to  the  caravanserai,  I  was  told  that  my 
fellow-travelers  had  already  found  lodgings  in  a  tekkie, 
a  sort  of  convent  where  traveling  dervishes  put  up,  called 
tos-hebaz.*  I  proceeded  thither,  and  found  that  they  had 
also  reserved  and  got  ready  a  cell  for  me.  Scarcely  was 
I  again  in  their  midst  when  they  questioned  me  as  to  the 

*  So  called  from  tort  slialibaz,  which  means  the  four  falcons  or 
heroes,  as  the  four  kings  are  designated  whose  tomb  is  here,  and  who 
gave  rise  to  the  pious  establishment. 


IN  KHIVA 


177 


cause  of  my  delaying  to  rejoin  them;  all  expressed  their 
regret  at  my  not  having  been  present  when  the  wretched 
Afghan,  who  had  wished  so  to  compromise  me,  had  been 
obliged  to  beat  a  retreat,  loaded  with  curses  and  re¬ 
proaches,  not  only  by  them,  but  by  the  Khivites.  “  Very 
good,”  thought  I;  “  the  popular  suspicion  removed,  it 
will  be  easy  enough  to  deal  with  the  khan,  for  he  will  be 
immediately  informed  of  my  arrival  by  Shukrullah  Bey; 
and  as  the  rulers  of  Khiva  have  ever  evinced  the  greatest 
respect  for  the  sultan,  the  present  sovereign  will  certainly 
venture  a  step  toward  an  etfendi;  nay,  it  is  not  impossible 
that  the  first  man  from  Constantinople  who  has  come  to 
Kharezm  (the  political  name  of  Khiva)  may  even  be 
treated  with  particular  distinction.” 

My  anticipations  did  not  deceive  me.  The  next  day 
there  came  a  yasaul  (officer  of  the  court),  bringing  to  me 
a  small  present  from  the  khan,  with  the  order  that  I 
should  in  the  evening  go  to  the  ark  (palace),  “  as  the 
liazret  ”  (a  title  of  sovereignty  in  Central  Asia,  cor¬ 
responding  with  our  expression  majesty)  “  attached 
great  importance  to  receiving  the  blessing  from  a  dervish 
born  in  the  Holy  Land.  ’  ’  I  promised  compliance,  betook 
myself  an  hour  previously  to  Shukrullah  Bey ;  and  as  lie 
was  desirous  of  being  himself  present  at  the  interview, 
he  accompanied  me  to  the  palace  of  the  king,  which  was 
in  his  immediate  vicinity,  giving  me,  on  the  way,  coun¬ 
sel  as  to  the  ceremonies  to  be  observed  in  my  interview. 
He  also  told  me  of  the  bad  footing  in  which  he  himself 
stood  with  the  mehter  (a  sort  of,  minister  of  the  Home 
Department),  who  feared  him  as  a  rival,  and  neglected 
nothing  to  do  him  an  injury,  and  who,  owing  to  my  being 
introduced  by  him,  would  not,  perhaps,  give  me  the  most 
friendly  reception.  As  the  kuslibeglii  and  the  elder 
brother  of  the  king  were  commanding  in  the  field  against 
the  Tchaudors,  the  mehter  was  provisionally  the  first 
official  minister  of  the  khan.  Both  usage  and  necessity 
forced  me  to  begin  by  paying  him  my  respects,  for  his 
office  was  in  a  hall  in  a  forecourt  at  the  very  gate  that 
leads  directly  to  the  khan’s  apartments. 


178  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

As  at  this  hour  there  was  almost  every  day  an  arz 
(public  audience),  the  principal  entrance,  as  well  as  all 
the  other  chambers  of  the  royal  residence  traversed  by 
us,  were  crowded  with  petitioners  of  every  class,  sex,  and 
age.  They  were  attired  in  their  ordinary  dresses,  and 
many  women  had  even  children  in  their  arms,  waiting  to 
obtain  a  hearing;  for  no  one  is  required  to  inscribe  his 
name,  and  he  who  lias  managed  to  force  his  way  first  is 
first  admitted.  The  crowd,  however,  gave  way  for  us  on 
all  sides ;  and  it  was  a  source  of  great  satisfaction  to  hear 
the  women,  while  pointing  to  me,  saying  to  one  another, 
“  Behold  the  dervish  from  Constantinople,  who  is  to  give 
his  blessing  to  our  khan.  May  God  give  ear  to  his 
words !  9 9 

I  found  the  mehter,  as  I  had  been  told,  in  a  hall  sur¬ 
rounded  by  his  officers,  who  accompanied  every  word  of 
their  lord  with  approving  smiles.  It  was  easy  to  dis¬ 
tinguish,  by  his  brown  complexion  and  his  long  thick 
beard  falling  down  to  his  breast,  that  he  was  Sart  (of 
Persian  origin).  His  clumsy  dress,  and  his  great  fur  cap 
especially,  suited  his  rough  features  admirably.  As  he 
saw  me  approach  he  spoke  a  few  words  laughingly  to 
those  around  him.  I  went  straight  up,  saluted  him  with  a 
serious  expression  of  countenance,  and  assumed  at  once 
the  place  of  honor  in  the  company,  belonging  of  right  to 
the  dervishes.  I  uttered  the  usual  prayers,  and  after  all 
had  added  the  Amen  with  the  ordinary  stroking  of  the 
beard,  the  customary  civilities  were  interchanged  with 
the  mehter.  The  minister  was  desirous  of  showing  his 
wit,  and  remarked  that  even  dervishes  in  Constantinople 
were  well  educated,  and  spoke  Arabic  (although  I  had 
only  made  use  of  the  Stambouli  dialect).  He  proceeded 
to  say  that  the  hazret  (his  majesty)  —  and  here  every 
one  rose  from  his  seat  —  desired  to  see  me,  and  that  “  he 
would  be  glad  to  hear  that  I  had  brought  with  me  a  few 
lines  from  the  sultan  or  his  ambassador  in  Teheran.’ ’ 
Whereupon  I  observed  that  my  journey  had  no  secular 
object;  that  I  wanted  nothing  from  any  one ;  but  that,  for 
my  personal  security,  I  had  with  me  a  firman,  bearing  at 


IN  KHIVA 


179 


the  top  the  tugra  (seal  of  the  sultan).  I  then  handed  him 
my  printed  pass.  On  receiving  this  sign  of  paramount 
sovereignty,  he  kissed  it  reverently,  rubbed  it  on  his  fore¬ 
head,  rose  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  khan,  and,  re¬ 
turning  almost  immediately,  told  me  to  step  into  the  hall 
of  audience. 

I  was  preceded  by  Shukrullah,  and  was  constrained  to 
wait  a  few  moments  until  the  necessary  preparations  had 
been  made;  for,  although  I  was  announced  as  a  dervish, 
my  introducer  had  not  neglected  to  draw  attention  to  the 
fact  that  I  was  acquainted  with  all  the  pashas  of  distinc¬ 
tion  in  Constantinople,  and  that  it  was  desirable  to  leave 
upon  me  as  imposing  an  impression  as  possible.  After 
the  lapse  of  a  few  moments  my  arms  were  held  with  every 
demonstration  of  respect  by  two  yasaul.  The  curtain  was 
rolled  up,  and  I  saw  before  me  Seid  Meliemmed  Khan, 
Padisliahi  Kharezm,  or,  as  he  would  be  styled  in  ordinary 
prose,  the  Khan  of  Khiva,  on  a  sort  of  elevation,  or  dais, 
with  his  left  arm  supported  upon  a  round  silk  velvet  pil¬ 
low,  and  his  right  holding  a  short  golden  sceptre. 

According  to  the  ceremonial  prescribed,  I  raised  my 
hands,  being  imitated  in  the  act  by  the  khan  and  the 
others  present,  recited  a  short  sura  from  the  Koran ;  then 
two  allaliumu  sella,  and  a  usual  prayer  beginning  with 
the  words  “  Allaliumu  rabbet/’  and  concluding  with  a 
loud  Amen  and  stroking  of  the  beard.  While  the  khan 
was  still  stroking  his  beard,  each  of  the  rest  exclaimed 
“  Kabul  bolgay”  (May  thy  prayer  be  heard)!  I  ap¬ 
proached  the  sovereign,  who  extended  his  hands  to  me, 
and  after  we  had  duly  executed  our  musafeha,*  I  retired 
a  few  paces  and  the  ceremonial  was  at  an  end.  The  khan 
now  began  to  question  me  respecting  the  object  of  my 
journey,  and  the  impression  made  upon  me  by  the  desert, 
the  Turkomans,  and  Khiva.  I  replied  that  I  had  suffered 
much,  but  that  my  sufferings  were  now  richly  rewarded 
by  the  sight  of  the  liazrets  djemal  (beauty  of  his  majesty). 
“  I  thank  Allah,”  I  said,  66  that  I  have  been  allowed 

*  Musafelia  is  the  greeting  prescribed  by  the  Koran,  accompanied 
by  the  reciprocal  extension  of  the  open  hands. 


180 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


co  partake  this  high  happiness,  and  discern  in  this  special 
favor  of  kismet  (fate)  a  good  prognostic  for  my  journey 
to  come.”  Although  I  labored  to  make  use  of  the  Ozbeg 
dialect  instead  of  that  of  Stamboul,  which  was  not  under¬ 
stood  here,  the  king  was,  nevertheless,  obliged  to  have 
much  translated  for  him.  He  asked  me  how  long  I  pro¬ 
posed  to  stay,  and  if  I  was  provided  with  the  necessary 
journey  expenses.  I  replied  that  I  wished  first  to  visit 
the  Sunnite  saints  who  repose  in  the  soil  of  the  khanat, 
and  that  I  should  then  prepare  for  my  journey  farther 
on.  With  respect  to  my  means,  I  said,  “  We  dervishes 
do  not  trouble  ourselves  with  such  trifles.  The  holy  nefes 
(breath)  which  my  pir  (chief  of  my  order)  had  imparted 
to  me  for  my  journey  can  support  me  four  or  five  days 
without  any  nourishment,”  and  that  I  had  no  other  wish 
than  that  God  would  permit  his  majesty  to  live  a  hundred 
and  twenty  years ! 

My  words  seemed  to  have  given  satisfaction,  for  his 
royal  highness  was  pleased  to  order  that  I  should  be  pre¬ 
sented  with  twentv  ducats  and  a  stout  ass.  I  declined  the 

«/ 

ducats  with  the  remark  that  for  a  dervish  it  was  a  sin 
to  keep  money;  thanked  him,  however,  warmly  for  the 
second  part  of  his  most  gracious  favor,  but  begged  per¬ 
mission  to  draw  his  attention  to  the  holy  commandment 
which  prescribed  a  white  ass  for  pilgrimages,  and  en¬ 
treated  him,  therefore,  to  vouchsafe  me  such  a  one.  I  was 
on  the  point  of  withdrawing  when  the  khan  desired  that, 
at  least  during  my  short  stay  in  the  capital,  I  should  be 
his  guest,  and  consent  to  take  for  my  daily  board  two 
tenghe  (about  one  franc  and  fifty  centimes)  from  his 
liaznadar.  I  thanked  him  heartily,  concluded  by  giving 
my  blessing,  and  withdrew.  I  hurried  home  through  the 
waving  crowds  in  the  forecourt  and  the  bazar,  while  all 
encountered  me  with  the  respectful  “  Selam  aleikum.” 
When  I  found  myself  again  alone  within  the  four  walls 
of  my  cell  I  drew  a  long  breath,  not  a  little  pleased  to 
find  that  the  khan,  who  in  appearance  was  so  fearfully 
dissolute,  and  who  presents  in  every  feature  of  his  coun¬ 
tenance  the  real  picture  of  an  enervated,  imbecile,  and 


IN  KHIVA 


181 


savage  tyrant,  had  behaved  to  me  in  a  manner  so  unexcep¬ 
tionable  ;  and  that,  so  long  as  my  time  permitted,  I  could 
now  traverse  the  klianat  in  all  directions  unmolested. 
During  the  whole  evening  I  had  floating  before  me  the 
picture  of  the  khan  with  his  deep-set  eyes,  with  his  chin 
thinly  covered  with  hair,  his  white  lips,  and  trembling 
voice.  “  [What  a  happy  fatality/  ’  I  repeated  to  myself, 
“  that  gloomy  superstition  often  imposes  limits  to  the 
might  and  blood-thirstiness  of  such  tyrants !  ’  ’ 

As  I  proposed  making  extensive  excursions  into  the  in¬ 
terior,  I  was  desirous  as  far  as  possible  to  shorten  my 
stay  in  the  capital.  What  was  most  worth  seeing  might 
quickly  be  dispatched,  had  not  repeated  invitations  of 
the  khan,  of  the  officials,  and  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  the  mercantile  community,  robbed  me  of  so  much  time. 
After  it  was  known  that  I  shared  the  favor  of  royalty, 
everybody  wanted  to  have  me  as  guest,  and  with  me  all 
the  other  hadjis.  What  a  torture  this  to  me,  to  have  daily 
to  accept  six,  seven,  or  eight  invitations,  and  to  comply 
with  the  usage  by  taking  something  in  every  house.  My 
hair  stands  on  end  at  the  recollection  how  often  I  was 
forced  to  seat  myself,  between  three  and  four  o’clock  in 
the  morning,  before  sunrise,  opposite  a  colossal  dish  of 
rice  swimming  in  the  fat  of  the  sheep-tail,  which  I  was 
to  assail  as  if  my  stomach  was  empty.  How,  upon  such 
occasions,  I  again  longed  for  the  dry  unleavened  bread  of 
the  desert,  and  how  willingly  I  would  have  exchanged 
this  deadly  luxury  for  wholesome  poverty ! 

In  Central  Asia  it  is  the  practice,  even  on  the  occasion 
of  an  ordinary  visit,  to  set  before  you  the  desturklian  (a 
napkin  of  coarse  linen  and  of  a  variety  of  colors,  for  the 
most  part  dirty).  In  this  enough  bread  is  generally 
placed  for  two  persons,  and  the  guest  is  to  eat  some  pieces 
of  this.  “  To  be  able  to  eat  no  more  ”  is  an  expression 
regarded  by  the  Central  Asiatic  as  incredible,  or,  at  least, 
as  indicating  low  breeding.  My  pilgrim  brethren  always 
gave  brilliant  proofs  of  their  bon  ton.  My  only  wonder 
is  that  they  could  support  the  heavy  pilow,  for  upon  one 
occasion  I  reckoned  that  each  of  them  had  devoured  one 


182  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

pound  of  fat  from  tlie  tail  of  the  sheep,  two  pounds  of 
rice,  without  taking  any  account  of  bread,  carrots,  tur¬ 
nips,  and  radishes;  and  all  this  washed  down,  without 
any  exaggeration,  by  from  fifteen  to  twenty  large  soup- 
plates  full  of  green  tea.  In  such  heroic  feats  I  was 
naturally  a  coward ;  and  it  was  the  astonishment  of  every 
one  that  I,  so  well  versed  in  books,  should  have  acquired 
only  a  half  acquaintance  with  the  requisites  of  polite 
breeding ! 

Another  source  of  torment  to  me  not  less  considerable 
was  that  of  the  beaux-esprits  of  the  ulemas  of  the  city 
of  Khiva.  These  gentlemen,  who  give  the  preference  to 
Turkey  and  Constantinople  beyond  all  other  places,  were 
desirous  of  receiving  from  me,  the  standard  of  Turkish 
Islamite  learning,  an  explanation  of  many  mesele  (re¬ 
ligious  questions).  Ob!  how  warm  those  thick-headed 
Ozbegs  made  me,  with  their  colossal  turbans,  when  they 
opened  a  conversation  concerning  the  prescriptions  as  to 
the  mode  of  washing  hands,  feet,  face,  and  occiput ;  and 
how  a  man  should,  in  obedience  to  his  holy  religion,  sit, 
walk,  lie,  and  sleep,  etc,  The  sultan  (a  recognized  suc¬ 
cessor  of  Mohammed)  and  his  grandees  are  accounted  in 
Khiva  the  practical  examples  of  all  these  important  laws. 
His  majesty  the  Emperor  of  Turkey  is  here  designated 
as  a  Mussulman,  whose  turban  is  at  least  50  ells  in  length, 
whose  beard  extends  below  his  breast,  and  his  robe  to  his 
toes.  A  man  might  place  his  life  in  jeopardy  who  should 
assert  the  fact  that  the  sultan  has  head  and  beard  shaved 
d  la  Fiesko,  and  clothes  made  for  him  at  Paris  by  I)use- 
toye.  I  was  often  realty  sorry  to  be  unable  to  give  to 
these  people,  often  persons  very  amiable,  the  satisfactory 
explanation  they  seemed  to  require;  and  how,  indeed, 
could  I  have  ventured  upon  such  explanation,  standing, 
as  we  do,  in  such  direct  contrast  and  opposition ! 

The  toshebaz,  or  convent  that  gave  us  shelter,  from 
the  great  reservoir  of  water  and  mosque  which  it  in¬ 
closes,  was  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  a  public  place :  the 
court  consequently  swarmed  always  with  visitors  of  both 
sexes.  The  Ozbeg  in  his  high  round  fur  hat,  great  thick 


IN  KHIVA 


183 


boots  of  leather,  walks  about  merely  in  a  long  shirt,  in 
summer  a  favorite  undress.  This  I  myself  adopted 
afterward,  as  I  found  it  was  not  regarded  as  indecent,  so 
long  as  the  shirt  retained  its  whiteness,  even  to  appear 
with  it  in  the  bazaar.  The  women  wear  lofty  globular 
turbans,  consisting  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  Russian  ker¬ 
chiefs.  They  are  forced,  striding  along,  in  spite  of  all 
the  overpowering  heat,  muffled  in  large  gowns,  and  with 
their  coarse  boots,  to  drag  to  their  houses  heavy  pitchers 
full  of  water.  Ah !  I  see  them  now.  Many  a  time  one  re¬ 
mains  standing  at  my  door,  entreating  for  a  little  khaki 
shifa  (health  dust*),  or  a  nefes  (holy  breath)  for  the 
real  or  feigned  ill  of  which  she  complains.  I  have  it  not 
in  my  heart  to  refuse  these  poor  creatures,  many  of  whom 
bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  daughters  of  Ger¬ 
many.  She  cowers  before  my  door :  I  touch,  moving  my 
lips  at  the  same  time  as  if  in  prayer,  the  suffering  part 
of  the  body,  and  after  having  thrice  breathed  hard  upon 
her,  a  deep  sigh  is  uttered,  and  my  part  is  done.  Many 
in  these  cases  persist  that  they  receive  an  instantaneous 
alleviation  of  their  malady ! 

What  in  Europe  idlers  seek  in  coffee-houses  they  find 
in  Khiva  in  the  courts  of  the  mosques.  These  have  in 
most  cases  a  reservoir  of  water,  and  are  shaded  by  the 
finest  palms  and  elm-trees.  Although  at  the  beginning 
of  June  the  heat  was  here  unusually  oppressive,  I  was 
nevertheless  forced  to  keep  my  cell,  although  it  was  with¬ 
out  windows,  for  immediately  I  issued  forth  and  betook 
myself  to  the  inviting  shade,  I  was  surrounded  by  a 
crowd,  and  plagued  to  death  with  the  most  stupid  in¬ 
quiries.  One  wanted  religious  instruction ;  another  asked 
if  the  world  offered  elsewhere  places  as  beautiful  as 
Khiva;  a  third  wished,  once  for  all,  to  receive  authentic 
information  whether  the  great  sultan  really  had  his  each 
day’s  dinner  and  supper  forwarded  to  him  from  Mecca, 
and  whether  they  passed  to  his  palace  from  the  Kaaba  in 

*  This  the  pilgrims  bring  back  with  them  from  a  house  in  Medina, 
affirmed  to  have  been  the  Prophet's.  It  is  used  by  the  believers  of  the 
true  faith  as  a  medicine  for  many  different  maladies. 


184 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


one  minute.  All !  if  the  good  Ozbegs  only  knew  how  much 
Chateau  Lafitte  and  Margot  garnished  the  sovereign’s 
table  in  the  reign  of  Abdul  Medjid ! 

Among  the  acquaintances  made  by  me  here,  under  the 
elm-trees,  an  interesting  one  resulted  from  my  meeting 
with  Hadji  Ismael,  represented  to  me  as  a  Stambouli; 
and,  indeed,  so  like  one  in  speech,  demeanor,  and  dress, 
that  I  was  obliged  to  accept  and  tenderly  embrace  him  as 
my  countryman!  Hadji  Ismael  had,  it  seems,  passed 
twenty-five  years  in  the  Turkish  capital,  was  intimate  in 
many  good  houses,  and  asserted  that  he  had  seen  me  in 
such  and  such  a  house,  and  at  such  and  such  a  time.  He 
even  insisted  that  it  was  no  effort  for  him  to  remember 
my  father,  who  was  a  moll  ah,  he  said,  in  Topkhane.* 
Far  from  charging  him  with  impudent  mendacity,  I  as¬ 
sured  him,  on  the  contrary,  that  he  had  himself  left  a 
good  name  behind  him  in  Stamboul,  and  that  every  one 
awaited  his  return  with  impatience.  According  to  his  ac¬ 
count,  Hadji  Ismael  had  carried  on,  on  the  shore  of  the 
Bosphorus,  the  business  of  tutor,  proprietor  of  baths, 
leather-cutter,  caligraphist,  chemist,  and,  consequently, 
also  of  conjuror.  In  his  native  city  they  had  a  high 
opinion  of  him,  particularly  with  reference  to  his  last- 
named  capacity;  he  had  in  his  house  several  little  ap¬ 
paratuses  for  distillation,  and  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
pressing  out  the  oil  from  leaves,  fruits,  and  other  similar 
substances,  it  is  easy  to  conceive  that  his  countrymen  ap¬ 
plied  to  him  for  a  variety  of  elixirs.  .  .  . 

In  Khiva,  in  the  meantime,  my  hadji  business  throve, 
both  with  me  and  my  colleagues.  In  this  place  alone  I 
collected  fifteen  ducats.  The  Khivan  Ozbeg,  although 
but  rough-liewn,  is  the  finest  character  of  Central  Asia, 
and  I  may  style  my  sojourn  among  his  race  here  as  most 
agreeable,  were  it  not  that  the  rivalry  between  the  mehter 
and  Shiikrullah  made  me  incur  some  danger,  the  former 
being  always  disposed,  from  hostility  to  my  introducer, 
to  do  me  harm;  and  as  he  could  no  longer  question  the 
genuineness  of  my  Turkish  character,  he  began  to  insinu- 

*  One  of  the  quarters  of  Constantinople. 


IN  KHIVA 


185 


ate  to  the  klian  that  I  was  only  a  sham  dervish,  probably 
sent  upon  some  secret  mission  by  the  sultan  of  Bokhara. 

Informed  of  the  progress  of  this  intrigue,  I  was  not 
at  all  astonished,  soon  after  my  first  audience  with  the 
khan,  to  receive  a  second  invitation.  The  weather  was 
intensely  hot.  I  did  not  like  to  be  disturbed  in  my  hour 
of  repose,  but  what  I  liked  least  of  all  was  to  be  obliged 
to  cross  the  square  of  the  castle,  whither  the  prisoners 
taken  in  the  campaign  against  the  Tchaudors  had  been 
sent,  and  where  they  were  to  be  executed.  The  khan, 
who  was  numerously  attended,  told  me  that  he  had  heard 
I  was  also  versed  in  worldly  sciences,  and  possessed  a 
beautiful  florid  inslia  (style) ;  he  added  that  I  must  write 
him  a  few  lines  in  Stambouli  fashion,  which  he  would  like 
much  to  see.  Knowing  that  this  had  been  suggested 
by  the  meliter,  who  enjoyed  himself  the  reputation  of 
being  a  caligrapliist,  and  had  elicited  the  fact  of  my  ac¬ 
complishment  from  the  hadjis,  I  took  the  proffered  writ¬ 
ing  materials  and  wrote  the  following  lines : 

Literally  translated. 

“  Most  Majestic,  Mighty,  Dread  King  and  Sovereign ! 

“  Immersed  in  thy  royal  favor,  the  poorest  and  humblest  of  thy 
servants,  keeping  before  his  eyes  (the  Arabian  proverb)*  that  1  all 
beautiful  penmen  are  fools,’  has  until  this  day  very  little  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  caligraphy,  and  only  because  he  calls  to 
mind  (a  Persian  proverb)  )that  i  every  failing  which  pleases  the  king 
is  a  virtue,’  does  he  venture  to  hand  to  him  most  submissively  these 
lines.” 

The  extravagant  sublimity  of  the  titles,  which  are, 
however,  still  in  use  in  Constantinople,  delighted  the 
khan.  The  meliter  was  too  stupid  to  understand  my 
sarcasm.  I  was  ordered  to  take  a  seat,  and  after  having 
been  offered  tea  and  bread,  the  khan  invited  me  to  con¬ 
verse  with  him.  The  subject  to-day  was  exclusively  polit¬ 
ical.  To  remain  true  to  my  dervish  character,  I  forced 
them  to  press  every  word  out  of  me.  The  meliter  watched 
each  expression,  wishing  to  see  the  confirmation  of  his 
suspicions.  All  his  trouble  was  fruitless.  The  khan, 
after  graciously  dismissing  me,  ordered  me  to  take  the 
money  for  my  daily  support  from  the  treasurer. 

*  Doctors  male  pingunt. 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA. 


THE  FORBIDDEN  LAND  OF  THE  HOLY  BOOKS. 

BY 

Sven  Hedin. 

Author  of  “  Through  Asia,”  etc. 

To  the  famous  Swedish  traveler,  Sven  Hedin,  we  owe  most  of  our 
recent  knowledge  of  the  vast  country  of  Central  Asia.  As  he  tells  us : — 

“  Travel  in  Asia  is  not  a  dance  upon  the  dropping  petals  of  the 
rose.  Life,  with  the  slow-moving  caravans  of  its  boundless  deserts 
and  untrodden  mountain  solitudes,  cannot  help  being  monotonous.” 
But,  it  will  be  seen  from  the  incident  recounted  here,  there  were  hap¬ 
penings  to  break  the  monotony  of  the  journey. 

Not  only  is  the  country  wild,  and  not  only  do  its  chief  towns  and 
cities  lie  in  almost  inaccessible  places,  but  the  climate  is  fierce  and 
varied  and  the  people  have  for  long  centuries  resented  intrusion  from 
outsiders,  backed  up  in  this  by  the  tenets  of  their  religion.  Hence, 
Tibet  has  always  been  looked  upon  as  the  u  land  of  mystery  ”  and 
only  at  long  intervals  have  Europeans  penetrated  it.  The  number 
of  those  wlio  have  reached  Lassa  may  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  one 
hand  and  it  is  not,  therefore,  strange  that  the  intrepid  Swedish  trav¬ 
eller  did  not  succeed.  Since  his  expedition,  however,  a  British  military 
expedition  has  entered  the  famous  city  and  it  may  be  that  its  mysteries 
will  ere  long  be  more  fully  revealed  to  the  world. 

Sven  Hedin  was  born  in  Sweden  in  1865.  He  travelled  in  Persia 
and  Mesopotamia  in  1885.  Later  he  explored  Khorassan  and  Turkestan 
and  went  across  Asia  from  Orenburg  to  Pekin  through  the  Gobi 
desert.  His  book  on  11  Central  Asia  and  Tibet  ”  has  been  published  in 
twelve  languages,  and  u  Through  Asia  ”  in  nine. 

AT  tlie  end  of  two  hours,  or  rather  more,  the  ranks 
again  formed  np  around  the  white  tent.  The 
Tibetans  appeared  to  be  in  desperate  haste. 
They  loosened  their  weapons.  They  mounted.  Then 
a  long  black  line  of  horsemen  streamed  out  from  amongst 
the  tents  and  rode  towards  ns  at  full  gallop.  It  was  not 
raining  just  at  that  moment,  so  there  was  nothing  to  pre¬ 
vent  us  from  witnessing  uninterrupted  what  was  in  truth 
a  really  magnificent  spectacle.  The  Tibetans  approached 


From  “  Central  Asia  and  Tibet  Towards  the  Holy  City  of  Lassa.” 

186 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


187 


rapidly,  keeping  their  horses  steadily  at  the  gallop.  At 
first  we  only  heard  a  confused  hollow  rumbling ;  but  very 
soon  we  caught  the  swift  thud,  thud  of  the  horses’  hoofs 
beating  the  ground.  It  was  as  though  a  living  avalanche 
were  sweeping  down  upon  us.  A  moment  more  and  we 
should  he  annihilated.  We  held  our  weapons  ready;  hut 
to  see  us  standing  there  calmly  waiting  outside  the  tent, 
nobody  would  have  suspected  the  terrible  sense  of  uneasi¬ 
ness  with  which  we  were  consumed. 

On  came  the  Tibetans  in  one  long  line  stretching  across 
the  plain.  In  the  middle  rode  the  chief  on  a  big  hand¬ 
some  mule,  though  all  the  rest  were  on  horseback.  His 
statf  of  officials,  military,  civil,  and  priestly,  who  rode 
immediately  behind  him,  were  all  dressed  in  their  finest 
holiday  attire.  The  wings  consisted  of  soldiers  armed 
to  the  teeth  with  gun,  sword  and  lance,  as  though  they 
were  taking  the  field  against  a  hostile  tribe.  We  counted 
close  upon  70  in  all. 

Then  a  small  body  detached  themselves  from  the  line, 
and  quickening  their  pace,  arrived  two  or  three  minutes 
in  advance  of  the  rest.  They  dismounted  and  saluted. 
One  of  them  was  my  friend  the  interpreter,  who  simply 
announced  that  his  Excellency  Kamba  Bomo  was  about 
to  honor  us  with  a  visit.  The  great  man  himself  arrived, 
and  pulled  up  immediately  in  front  of  our  tent.  In  a 
moment  his  attendants  were  out  of  the  saddle,  and  had  a 
carpet  spread  on  the  ground  for  their  chief  to  step  upon. 
He  took  his  seat  on  a  pile  of  cushions,  which  his  servants 
held  ready,  and  by  his  side  sat  Nanso  Lama,  a  distin¬ 
guished  priest  of  Nakkchu. 

I  walked  quietly  forward  and  invited  him  into  our  tent. 
He  at  once  entered,  and  after  a  little  hesitation  accepted 
the  seat  of  honor  I  pointed  to,  a  wet  maize  sack  in  the 
middle  of  our  ill-smelling,  almost  mouldy,  effects.  His 
countenance  expressed  both  cunning  and  sly  humor;  he 
blinked  his  eyes,  and  chuckled  to  himself.  He  was  a  man 
of  about  forty,  little  and  pale,  with  a  worn,  tired  look, 
though  he  was  evidently  delighted  at  having  us  safe  in 
his  toils.  He  knew  it  would  be  a  great  feather  in  his 


188 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


cap  when  he  reported  his  success  to  Lassa.  His  dress 
was  tasteful  and  elegant,  and  he  had  evidently  put  it  on 
specially  for  the  occasion,  for  it  was  spotlessly  clean. 
His  servants  removed  his  outer  garb,  consisting  of  a  red 
Spanish  cloak  and  a  red  bashlik  or  hood.  He  then  stood 
forth  arrayed  in  a  suit  of  yellow  silk,  with  wide  arms,  and 
a  little  blue  Chinese  skull-cap.  His  feet  were  encased  in 
Mongolian  boots  of  green  velvet.  In  a  word,  he  was 
magnificent.  One  of  his  men  brought  in  pen,  paper  and 
inkhorn,  and  again  the  cross-examination  began.  Kamba 
Bombo  was  much  less  interested  in  us  than  in  our  head¬ 
quarters  camp  and  the  strength  of  the  caravan.  He  plied 
the  pen  himself,  for  he  intended  to  send  a  detailed  report 
to  Lassa.  Then  he  examined  our  belongings ;  but,  strange 
to  say,  he  never  once  expressed  a  wish  to  see  the  inside 
of  our  boxes;  he  was  quite  satisfied  when  we  told  him 
they  contained  our  provisions.  He  seemed  to  have  per¬ 
fectly  made  up  his  mind  with  regard  to  myself,  and  even 
considered  it  superfluous  to  put  any  questions  to  me  of 
a  personal  character.  Shagdur,  upon  being  questioned, 
adopted  the  tone  of  a  field-marshal  in  giving  his  replies. 
He  said  he  was  a  Russian  subject  and  a  Buriat,  and  as 
such  had  a  perfect  right  to  go  to  Lassa.  The  Russian 
authorities  would  regard  it  as  an  affront  if  we  peaceful 
pilgrims  were  hindered  from  making  the  pilgrimage  ;  no¬ 
body  had  any  right  to  interfere  with  us. 

But  Kamba  Bombo  laughed,  and  said :  “  You  need  not 
think  you  can  frighten  me.  I  am  going  to  do  my  duty. 
I  have  just  had  express  orders  from  the  Dalai  Lama  with 
regard  to  you,  and  I  know  better  than  you  do  what  I  have 
got  to  do.  You  will  not  go  to  Lassa.  You  will  not  go 
another  day,  not  another  step,  towards  Lassa.  If  you 
do  you  will  lose  your  heads/7  and  he  drew  his  hand 
significantly  across  his  throat.  He  added,  that  if  he 
allowed  us  to  go,  he  would  lose  his  own  life.  “  It  doesn’t 
matter  the  least  who  you  are,  or  where  you  come  from. 
Your  actions  are  in  the  highest  degree  suspicious.  You 
have  slunk  in  by  a  back  road,  and  must  just  go  back  to 
your  headquarters,” 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


189 


We  saw  that  we  should  have  to  obey ;  there  was  nothing 
else  to  be  done.  Shagdur  then  told  him  about  our  horses 
having  been  stolen.  At  first  Kamba  Bombo  equivocated, 
and  said  he  could  not  be  answerable  for  what  happened 
outside  the  boundaries  of  his  own  province.  Shagdur  re¬ 
plied,  “  Oh,  so  that  country  does  not  belong  to  you;  per¬ 
haps  then  it  belongs  to  Russia  1  ’  ’  At  this  Kamba  Bombo 
grew  angry,  and  said  that  the  whole  country  belonged  to 
the  Dalai  Lama.  Shagdur  was  afterwards  immensely 
proud  of  the  reply  he  made.  The  chief  now  rose,  and 
taking  Shagdur  with  him,  went  and  sat  down  on  the 
cushions  outside.  After  a  little  while  I  was  called  out. 
Kamba  Bombo  was  willing  to  procure  two  new  horses, 
but  I  must  pay  for  one  of  them.  I  simply  laughed  in  his 
face,  and,  turning  on  my  heel,  walked  back  into  the  tent, 
saying,  such  presents  would  not  do  for  us;  it  must  be 
either  two  horses  or  none.  Thereupon  Kamba  Bombo 
promised  to  give  us  next  morning  two  others  in  place  of 
the  two  we  had  lost. 

On  the  whole  he  was  very  friendly  and  polite,  not  the 
least  bit  put  out  at  having  been  disturbed,  and  compelled 
to  ride  over  himself  in  this  way.  He  was  an  excellent 
fellow  to  have  to  deal  with :  lie  knew  his  own  mind  and 
had  a  will  of  his  own.  Who  I  really  was  he  never  dis¬ 
tinctly  understood.  I  fancy,  though,  he  must  have  be¬ 
lieved  that  under  the  disguise  of  my  threadbare  Mon¬ 
golian  coat  somebody  out  of  the  common  was  concealed, 
otherwise  he  would  not  have  turned  out  with  so  much 
pomp  and  ceremony.  The  Tibetans  are  in  constant  com¬ 
munication  with  China,  indeed  they  are  nominally  sub¬ 
ject  to  that  power,  and  China  maintains  a  representative 
at  Lassa,  and  a  yamen  or  official  residence  in  the  vicinity 
of  Potala,  the  temple  palace  of  the  Dalai  Lama.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Lassa  authorities  had  heard  of 
the  events  which  had  recently  occurred  in  China,  and 
knew  what  stern  vengeance  had  been  exacted  for  the  mur¬ 
der  of  Baron  von  Ivetteler  at  Peking,  and  so  considered 
it  prudent  not  to  injure  a  European. 

Whilst  this  conversation  was  progressing,  the  other 


190 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Tibetans  crowded  round  us,  and  kept  making  comments 
and  observations.  They  carried  their  swords  in  hand¬ 
some  silver-mounted  scabbards,  decorated  with  corals  and 
turquoises;  silver  gavos  or  cases  for  burkans,  that  is, 
little  images  of  Buddha;  bracelets  and  rosaries;  and  in 
the  long  plaits  of  their  hair,  various  parti-colored  orna¬ 
ments —  in  a  word,  they  were  decked  out  in  the  hand¬ 
somest  finery  they  possessed.  The  more  distinguished 
amongst  them  wore  big  white  hats,  with  plumes  in  them ; 
others  had  scarves  wound  round  their  heads,  while  the 
rank  and  file  were  bareheaded. 

Shereb  Lama  was  quite  overpowered  by  all  this  gran¬ 
deur.  He  lay  prone  on  his  knees  with  his  gaze  fixed  im¬ 
movably  on  the  ground,  and  when  the  chief  questioned  him, 
which  he  did  right  sharply,  was  unable  to  meet  Kambo 
Bomo’s  eye.  His  answers  were  short  and  hurried,  as 
though  he  had  no  longer  any  secrets  to  conceal.  What 
he  actually  said  we  did  not  know,  for  they  spoke  Tibetan; 
but  afterwards  he  told  us  that  Kamba  Bombo  sternly  re¬ 
proached  him  for  having  come  with  us,  and  said  he  ought 
to  have  known  that  no  European  would  be  tolerated  in 
Lassa.  His  name  was  recorded  in  the  black  books  of  the 
temples,  and  he  would  never  be  permitted  to  set  foot 
within  the  holy  city  again.  If  he  attempted  to  enter  it 
hidden  amongst  a  pilgrim  caravan,  he  must  take  the  con¬ 
sequences.  He  had  been  faithless  to  his  priestly  dignity, 
and  was  a  traitor. 

Finally  I  proposed  that  I,  with  the  help  of  our  Lama 
and  the  interpreter,  should  write  a  letter  to  the  Dalai 
Lama,  who,  if  he  really  knew  who  we  were,  would,  I  as¬ 
serted,  be  very  pleased  to  receive  us.  But  Kamba  Bombo 
answered  that  it  was  quite  unnecessary;  he  himself  re¬ 
ceived  orders  every  day  direct  from  Lassa  with  regard 
to  us,  and  for  a  man  in  his  position  it  would  be  unseemly 
to  offer  advice  to  the  Dalai  Lama ;  it  might  lead  to  his  dis¬ 
missal,  if  not  worse. 

Thereupon  he  politely  took  his  leave,  swung  himself 
up  into  his  richly  decorated  saddle  and  rode  away  at  a 
smart  trot,  followed  by  his  large  staff.  By  this  it  was 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


191 


twilight,  and  the  troop  soon  disappeared  from  our  gaze, 
and  with  them  my  hope  of  setting  eyes  upon  the  Mecca 
of  Lamaism.  The  stars  twinkled  brightly  over  the  whit© 
temples  of  Lassa;  not  a  breath  of  wind  disturbed  the 
peaceful  serenity  of  the  night,  and  only  a  dog  barked 
occasionally  in  the  far  distance. 

That  evening  we  sat  up  a  long  time  talking.  Our  Lama 
was  downcast  and  taciturn;  but  Shagdur  and  I  were  in 
excellent  spirits.  It  is  true  we  had  failed  in  our  attempt 
to  enter  Lassa;  but  we  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  we  had  done  our  very  utmost.  When  you  meet  with 
insuperable  obstacles,  it  is  then  time  to  turn  back,  and 
you  need  have  no  compunction  at  doing  so.  Still,  it  was 
odd  that  the  Tibetans  released  us  without  a  single  rough 
word. 

Early  on  the  10th  August  we  bade  the  nearest  of  our 
guards  fetch  our  horses  and  mules  to  the  tent;  for  we 
had  decided  to  start  back  that  morning  as  soon  as  we 
could  get  away.  But  as  no  messenger  appeared  from 
Kamba  Bombo,  I  resolved  to  go  to  him  alone,  although 
Shagdur  and  the  Lama  both  warned  me  against  doing  so. 
They  thought  we  ought  to  continue  to  stick  together  as 
we  had  done  hitherto.  But,  disregarding  their  advice, 
I  rode  at  a  gentle  pace  between  the  marshes  towards 
Kamba  Bombo ’s  white-tented  village.  When  I  got  nearly 
half  way,  I  was  surrounded  by  a  band  of  armed  horsemen, 
probably  a  score  in  number.  Without  uttering  a  single 
word  they  formed  up  in  front  of  me  and  behind  me,  and 
when  about  half  a  mile  from  their  tents  they  stopped, 
formed  a  ring  round  me,  dismounted,  and  signed  to  me 
to  follow  their  example. 

After  waiting  barely  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  the  same 
cavalcade  as  yesterday  rode  out  from  amongst  the  tents 
and  approached  us  at  the  gallop,  Kamba  Bombo,  in  his 
yellow  robes,  riding  in  the  middle  of  them.  A  carpet  and 
cushions  were  spread  on  the  ground,  and  he  invited  me 
to  take  a  seat  by  his  side.  The  interpreter  was  present, 
and  we  had  a  good  talk. 

This  method  of  receiving  me  on  neutral  ground  was  a 
Vol.  IV  — 12 


192  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

touch  of  etiquette  which  was  as  tactful  as  it  was  fully 
justified.  The  clay  before  I  had  refused  to  accept  Kamba 
Bombo’s  invitation,  and  he,  no  doubt,  thought  to  himself: 
“  I  will  show  them  they  need  not  inconvenience  them¬ 
selves  to  come  and  visit  me.”  He  had  likewise  said: 
“  You  shall  not  take  another  step  towards  Lassa,”  and 
so  he  was  come  to  prevent  me.  All  my  powers  of  per¬ 
suasion  were,  however,  not  more  successful  now  than  they 
had  been  the  day  before.  “  I  am  not  going  to  lose  my 
head  for  you,”  he  said.  “  So  far  as  I  myself  am  con¬ 
cerned,  I  don’t  care  a  pin  whether  you  go  to  Lassa  or  not; 
but  I  have  had  my  orders,  and  I  am  going  to  obey  them.  ’  ’ 
I  then  said  to  him,  in  a  jesting  tone:  “  You  and  I  to¬ 
gether  could  go  there  and  back  in  a  few  days,  and  nobody 
be  a  bit  the  wiser.”  But  he  only  laughed  and  shook  his 
head,  and  cried:  “  Back,  back  with  you!  You  must  go 
back.  ’  ’ 

Then  he  blinked  once,  twice,  three  times,  and  uttered 
the  single  word  “  Sahib;  ”  at  the  same  time  pointing 
south  towards  the  Himalayas.  It  needed  no  interpreter 
to  tell  me  what  he  meant.  “  You  are  an  Englishman 
from  India !  ’  ’  And  say  what  I  might,  argue  as  I  would, 
I  could  not  get  that  conviction  out  of  his  head.  Finding 
that  he  was  not  to  be  moved,  I  dropped  the  mask  entirely, 
and  admitted  that  I  was  a  European,  though  not  an 
Englishman ;  but  that  I  came  from  a  country  in  the  north, 
a  long  way  the  other  side  of  Bussia;  but  he  only  laughed 
and  kept  repeating :  ‘  ‘  Sahib  !  Sahib  !  ’  ’  Then  I  told  him 
that  I  had  with  me  two  Buriat  Cossacks  and  two  Bussian 
Cossacks,  lent  to  me  by  the  Bussian  Czar,  and  asked 
whether  he  believed  that  an  Englishman  would  travel 
with  Bussian  Cossacks,  and  whether  he  thought  it  likely 
that  they  would  come  from  the  north,  when  India  lay  to 
the  south  of  Tibet.  To  this  reasoning  he  replied  in  the 
same  terms  as  before:  “  They  are  all  Sahibs.  If  you 
have  managed  to  get  hold  of  a  Mongolian  Lama,  you  could 
easily  secure  a  Buriat  as  well.” 

Two  horses  were  now  led  forward,  a  dun  one  and  a 
white  one;  these  Kamba  Bombo  expressed  himself  as 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


193 


willing  to  present  to  me.  “  Let  two  of  your  men  get  on 
their  backs  and  take  them  for  a  gallop,”  I  said.  They 
did  so ;  but  the  horses,  which  were  as  lean  as  scarecrows, 
stumbled  and  looked  anything  but  first-rate  animals.  I 
then  turned  to  Kamba  Bombo  and  asked  him  how  he,  a 
rich  and  distinguished  man,  dared  to  offer  to  me,  who 
was  at  least  as  distinguished  as  himself,  two  such 
wretched  jades.  I  refused  to  accept  them ;  he  might  keep 
them  for  his  own  cavalry.  Instead  of  being  offended  at 
this  candid  observation,  he  commanded  two  other  horses 
to  be  led  forward.  They  were  plump  and  in  good  condi¬ 
tion,  and  after  they  had  been  duly  tried,  I  agreed  to  accept 
them. 

After  that  we  all  rode  back  to  our  tent.  Kamba  Bombo 
sat  for  a  good  while,  and  ate  raisins  as  a  horse  eats  oats, 
and  was  entertained  with  tea,  tsamba,  and  tobacco.  We 
were  surrounded  by  the  whole  of  his  staff,  who  made  a 
fine  show  in  their  fantastic  attire,  their  women’s  hats 
and  long  plumes  intermingling  peacefully  with  their  war¬ 
like  lances  and  swords.  They  made  a  gaudy  picture  in 
the  sunshine;  and  all  laughed,  as  in  duty  bound,  at  the 
witticisms  of  their  chief.  We  then  exchanged  some  of 
our  Chinese  yambas  for  Tibetan  silver  money.  Kambo 
Bombo  had  a  pair  of  scales  with  him,  and  weighed  very 
carefully  the  silver  we  handed  over  to  him.  After  that 
we  showed  him  our  weapons,  and  they  evidently  made  a 
great  impression  upon  him.  I  told  him  it  was  not  a  bit 
of  use  his  raking  together  so  many  soldiers;  with  their 
wretched  muzzle-loading  muskets  we  were  not  a  bit  afraid 
of  them.  If  it  came  to  hostilities,  they  should  bear  in 
mind  that  we  could  shoot  down  three  dozen  of  them  whilst 
they  were  loading.  But  he  asserted  that  they  did  not 
want  hostilities ;  they  only  wanted  to  keep  unauthorized 
strangers  outside  the  frontiers  of  their  country. 

Then  I  asked  him  straight  out  why  he  durst  not  come 
to  my  tent  without  being  attended  by  an  escort  of  70  men ; 
was  he  really  so  horribly  afaid  of  me?  “  Not  at  all,”  he 
answered;  “  but  I  know  you  are  a  distinguished  sahib, 
and  I  have  been  instructed  from  Lassa  to  show  you  the 


194  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

same  respect  that  we  show  to  the  highest  dignitaries  of 
onr  own  country.” 

After  waiting  a  long  time,  and  waiting  in  vain,  for  a 
deus  ex  machina  to  open  up  for  us  the  way  to  Lassa,  I  at 
length  rose  and  gave  orders’  to  load  up.  This,  with  the 
help  of  the  Tibetans,  was  accomplished  in  next  to  no 
time.  Kamba  Bombo  then  presented  to  me  an  escort  of 
three  officers  and  a  score  of  men,  who  were  to  accompany 
us  as  far  as  the  northern  boundary  of  the  province  of 
Nakkcliu.  He  assured  me  that  as  long  as  this  escort 
was  with  us  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  about  any¬ 
thing  ;  his  men  would  look  after  our  animals  and  provide 
us  gratuitously  with  all  the  provisions  we  needed.  And 
he  wound  up  by  making  me  a  present  of  six  sheep,  a  stock 
of  milk-foods,  and  a  number  of  bowls  and  dishes  of  fat. 
Then  we  said  good-bye  to  this  great  chief,  who  had  been 
at  one  and  the  same  time  so  friendly  and  so  inhospitable, 
and  who  had  so  inflexibly  barred  our  way,  and  set  off  to 
return  by  the  road  we  came.  “  Yes,  my  good  Shagdur,” 
I  said  —  the  tine  fellow’s  courage  and  fidelity  never 
wavered  for  a  moment  —  “  it  is  true  we  have  not  got  into 
Lassa;  but  we  have  preserved  our  lives,  for  which  we 
have  every  reason  to  be  thankful.” 

After  going  some  distance,  I  turned  round  in  my  sad¬ 
dle,  and  saw  Kamba  Bombo  and  his  men  poking  and 
ferreting  about  the  spot  where  our  tent  had  stood.  A  few 
cigarette  capsules  and  tag-ends  of  stearin  candles  would 
no  doubt  confirm  them  in  the  conviction  that  it  was 
Europeans  they  had  had  to  deal  with.  It  was  not  until 
we  had  ridden  for  an  hour  or  more  that  we  fully  under¬ 
stood  how  many  men  our  escort  consisted  of,  for  first 
one  turned  back  and  left  us,  and  then  another,  the  last 
being  our  friend  the  interpreter,  who  importuned  me  in¬ 
cessantly  for  brandy. 

Our  escort  really  consisted  of  two  officers,  Solang  Undy 
and  Anna  Tsering,  with  a  junior  officer  and  14  soldiers, 
armed  with  sword,  lance,  and  musket.  Besides  these 
there  were  also  six  other  men,  who  were  not  soldiers,  and 
whose  duty  it  was  to  lead  the  pack-horses  which  carried 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


195 


the  commissariat,  and  drive  before  them  a  flock  of  half 
a  score  sheep.  We  rode  at  a  good  round  pace,  and  I  was 
greatly  amused  to  observe  how  the  Tibetans  executed  the 
orders  given  to  them.  They  rode  in  front  of  us,  they 
rode  behind  us,  they  rode  on  both  sides  of  us,  and  never 
let  us  a  moment  out  of  their  sight.  If  they  could  have 
done  so,  I  am  convinced  they  would  have  ridden  above 
our  heads  and  under  our  feet,  so  as  to  prevent  us  from 
climbing  up  to  heaven  or  suddenly  diving  off  to  the  nether 
world. 

The  day  was  well  advanced,  for  we  did  not  get  started 
until  two  o  ’clock.  Again  and  again  the  Tibetans  stopped 
and  suggested  that  we  should  encamp ;  evidently  they  did 
not  mean  to  hurry  themselves.  But  they  were  now  under 
my  command,  and  so,  leaving  our  baggage  animals  be¬ 
hind  us,  I,  Shagdur  and  the  Lama  rode  on  until  we 
reached  the  vicinity  of  the  lake  of  Tso-nekk.  The  Tibe¬ 
tans  had  promised  to  be  answerable  for  our  belongings, 
and  sure  enough  they  brought  them  up  without  grumbling. 
It  was  dusk  when  we  halted.  Our  escort  had  with  them 
two  black  tents,  which  they  pitched  one  on  each  side  of 
ours  and  close  to  it.  As  soon  as  the  camp  was  quiet,  the 
animals  were  turned  loose  to  graze  under  the  charge  of 
a  couple  of  the  Tibetans.  Then  I  went  and  had  supper 
with  Solang  Undy  and  Anna  Tsering.  The  latter  was 
a  young  man,  with  an  exceptionally  pleasant  and  sympa¬ 
thetic  face.  Both  were,  like  nearly  all  the  Tibetans, 
beardless;  and  Anna  Tsering,  with  his  long,  black,  dis¬ 
hevelled  hair,  looked  very  like  a  girl. 

For  some  time  that  evening  their  tents  hummed  like 
a  beehive:  it  was  the  Tibetans  reciting  their  evening 
prayers,  awakening  in  our  Lama  melancholy  recollections 
of  the  evenings  he  had  spent  in  Lassa,  where  from  every 
temple  there  used  to  go  up  at  that  hour  of  the  day  one 
voluminous  swell  of  prayer.  He  feared  he  should  never 
hear  it  again. 

All  night  long  it  poured  with  rain ;  but  except  for  that 
our  rest  was  not  disturbed.  When  we  arose  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  there  were  all  our  animals  ready  waiting  for  us;  but 


196  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

everything  was  wet  and  heavy,  and  the  ground  greasy 
and  slippery  from  the  rain.  Although  it  looked  threaten¬ 
ing  all  that  day,  the  11th  August,  it  did  not  come  down 
again.  'When  the  sun  shone  out,  it  was  almost  oppres¬ 
sively  hot;  at  least  it  burned  through  my  thin  Chinese 
cap.  Most  of  our  escort  wore  nothing  more  than  a 
coarse  shirt,  a  sheepskin,  and  big  boots.  They  had  a  very 
convenient  and  practical  way  of  dealing  with  the  second 
of  these.  When  it  was  warm,  they  slipped  out  their  right 
arm  and  pushed  down  the  sheep-skin,  so  as  to  leave  the 
arm  and  upper  part  of  the  body  exposed;  but  when  it 
turned  cold  they  pulled  it  up  over  their  shoulders  again. 

Their  horses  were  small  and  plump,  and  had  very  long 
hair ;  but,  in  spite  of  their  short,  tripping  steps,  they  got 
over  the  ground  rapidly.  Yet  they  stumbled  a  good  many 
times  and  flung  off  their  loads,  or  bolted  with  them,  drag¬ 
ging  them  along  the  ground.  As,  however,  the  men  were 
watchful  and  alert,  and,  as  will  readily  be  understood, 
accustomed  to  caravan  travelling,  things  were  soon  put 
to  rights  again. 

One  of  the  chiefs  had  brought  with  him  a  long-haired 
yellow  greyhound,  with  a  blue  ribbon  and  bells  attached 
round  its  neck.  Before  we  started  I  advised  him  to  leave 
the  animal  behind;  but  he  peremptorily  insisted  upon 
taking  it.  Before  we  got  very  far,  however,  Yollbars  had 
a  go  at  the  brute,  and  mauled  it  fearfully.  The  grey¬ 
hound,  bleeding,  limping,  and  howling,  was  then  taken 
back  in  a  string  by  one  of  the  soldiers.  The  men  of  our 
escort  stood  terribly  in  awe  of  both  our  dogs.  Even 
when  they  were  mounted,  they  used  to  ride  off  directly 
Yollbars  showed  himself  anywhere  near,  and  when  we 
pulled  up  at  night  they  durst  not  dismount  until  we  had 
tied  up  our  dogs. 

It  was  exceedingly  annoying  to  have  to  retrace  our 
own  footsteps;  but  our  Tibetans  helped  to  shorten  the 
road.  I  never  grew  tired  of  watching  those  wild  men  in 
their  picturesque  attire — their  behaviour,  their  method 
of  riding  and  managing  their  horses,  of  lighting  their 
fires  and  cooking  their  food  —  everything  they  did,  in 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


197 


fact,  both  in  camp  and  on  the  inarch  was  interesting.  All 
except  the  officers  were  the  very  image  of  highwaymen. 
Whilst  on  the  march  several  of  them  rolled  up  the  long 
plaits  of  their  hair,  and  tucked  them  under  their  broad- 
brimmed  hats.  Two  old  men,  lamas,  wore  their  hair 
short,  and  as  they  rode,  incessantly  turned  their  korlehs, 
or  prayer- wheels,  mumbling  On  maneh  padmeh  hum! 
without  for  one  moment  tiring,  their  voices  rising  and 
falling  in  a  monotonous,  sleepy  sing-song.  By  this  we 
had  to  some  extent  won  the  confidence  of  our  escort,  and 
they  watched  us  less  jealously.  They  chattered  a  good 
deal  and  were  noisy,  and  evidently  enjoyed  the  little  trip. 
Shagdur  was  very  often  surrounded  by  a  group  of  sol¬ 
diers,  jesting  and  joking  with  them  right  heartily.  They 
laughed  fit  to  split  their  sides  at  his  attempts  to  speak 
their  language. 

Solang  Undy  wore  over  his  shoulder  a  red  cloth  scarf 
with  four  big  silver  gavos  sewn  on  the  back  of  it,  and 
carried  at  his  belt  his  sabre,  knife,  steel  and  tinder-box, 
tobacco-pouch,  pipe,  and  various  other  small  articles, 
which  rattled  and  jingled  eyery  time  he  moved.  Amongst 
those  I  observed  a  small  pair  of  nippers,  with  which  he 
used  carefully  to  pull  out  the  hairs  that  dared  to  show 
themselves  on  his  chin.  His  beardless  face  was  seamed 
with  wrinkles,  making  him  look  like  an  old  woman.  Care¬ 
fully  wrapping  the  plaits  of  his  hair  in  a  red  handker¬ 
chief,  he  rolled  the  handkercliieffiround  his  head,  and  on 
the  top  of  it  balanced  his  felt  hat  with  a  big  feather  in  it. 

After  riding  three  and  a  half  hours,  the  Tibetans  stop¬ 
ped  and  dismounted,  asking  whether  we  had  any  objection 
to  a  short  rest  for  tea.  My  two  fellow  travellers  voted 
for  pushing  on,  but  I  preferred  to  let  the  Tibetans  do  as 
they  wished,  so  that  I  might  have  an  opportunity  to  study 
their  habits.  They  said  they  had  not  had  time  to  get  their 
breakfast ;  and  certainly  their  assertion  was  fully  borne 
out  by  the  honor  they  did  to  the  dishes. 

With  their  swords  they  carved  three  clods  out  of  the 
soft,  grassy  soil,  and  upon  them  placed  the  pot  in  which 


i 


198 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


they  boiled  the  water  for  their  tea.  They  had  with  them 
a  supply  of  dried  argol,  so  that  the  fires  were  soon  alight. 
Then  they  produced  pieces  of  boiled  mutton  wrapped  up 
in  cloth,  and  prepared  their  tsamba  of  fat,  butter,  tea  and 
small  pieces  of  meat.  As  for  ns,  we  contented  ourselves 
with  sour  milk.  Whilst  we  were  at  breakfast  our  escort 
informed  us  that  they  were  only  ordered  to  accompany 
us  as  far  as  the  river  Garcliu-sanglii,  the  boundary  of  the 
province  of  Nakkchu.  After  that  they  did  not  seem  to 
care  in  the  least  where  we  went.  We  invited  them,  to  go 
with  us  all  the  way  to  our  headquarters  camp,  but  for 
that  they  had  not  the  slightest  inclination.  They  said 
they  had  only  to  obey  orders ;  and  it  was  easy  to  perceive 
that  they  fought  very  shy  of  our  caravan,  and  of  the  force 
which  they  believed  awaited  us  there.  Thus  in  that  par¬ 
ticular  part  of  the  road  which  I  may  call  the  “  robber- 
zone/’  we  were  to  be  left  to  look  after  ourselves.  As  it 
was  now  pitch  dark  at  night,  very  different  from  the 
moonlight  nights  of  our  journey  towards  Lassa,  we  did 
not  quite  relish  the  prospect. 

After  all  the  rain  we  had  had  the  ground  was,  if  pos¬ 
sible,  still  softer  than  before.  The  horses  stumbled, 
floundered  and  stuck  fast  at  almost  every  step.  We  sel¬ 
dom  saw  any  of  the  occupants  of  the  nomads ’  tents;  our 
guards  seemed  purposely  to  avoid  them,  for  they  always 
encamped  at  some  little  distances  away.  Such  provisions 
as  they  wanted  were  fetched  by  one  or  the  other  of  them 
as  they  rode  past. 

That  afternoon,  when  we  stopped  for  good,  the  men  of 
our  escort  procured  from  somewhere  two  additional  tents, 
and  were  also  joined  by  six  more  men.  It  was  a  quiet, 
beautiful  evening,  with  the  stars  twinkling  through  a  light 
veil  of  cloud.  The  camp-fires  burned  clear  and  bright 
under  the  gentle  persuasion  of  the  bellows ;  and  the  smoke 
from  our  own  fire  curled  up  through  an  oblong  rift  in 
the  top  of  the  tent.  Altogether  our  camp  that  afternoon 
presented  both  a  picturesque  and  an  animated  scene, 
especially  as  the  Tibetans  were  full  of  talk  and  laughter. 

Had  Kamba  Bombo  been  with  us  that  night  he  would 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


199 


have  discovered  excellent  grist  for  his  mill,  for  I  pro¬ 
duced  my  watch  and  mariner’s  compass.  The  Tibetans 
were  completely  mystified  by  the  ticking  of  the  watch, 
and  never  grew  tired  of  listening  to  it.  I  told  them  it 
was  a  gavo,  with  a  little  live  burkhan,  i.  e.,  talisman,  or 
image  of  Buddha,  inside  it.  As  soon  as  they  were  satis¬ 
fied  that  my  Verascope  camera  was  not  a  revolver,  nor 
any  sort  of  mysterious  infernal  machine,  they  took  no 
further  notice  of  it.  The  camp  that  night  was  called 
Sari-kari. 

In  spite  of  the  short  marches  they  made,  our  Tibetans 
were  early  astir  on  the  following  morning.  They  were 
evidently  enjoying  the  trip,  and  wanted  to  make  it  last 
as  long  as  possible.  In  proportion  as  we  approached  the 
frontier  of  the  province,  our  guards  allowed  us  increas¬ 
ingly  greater  freedom.  They  often  let  us  ride  by  our¬ 
selves  a.  good  bit  behind  their  main  force ;  though  it  was 
never  very  long  before  we  perceived  two  or  three  mounted 
men  following  a  long  way  in  the  rear.  Next  day  we 
crossed  the  spacious  valley  where  we  first  came  in  contact 
with  the  tea-caravan.  Throughout  the  march  I  was  put 
forcibly  in  mind  of  our  merry  sledge  parties  at  home  in 
the  winter  months.  Every  horse  had  a  jingling  bell 
round  its  neck,  and  the  monotonous  tinkle,  tinkle  had  a 
very  drowsy  effect  upon  me.  But  just  before  we  reached 
our  former  camp,  No.  LI.,  the  Tibetans  swung  off  to  the 
right  and  entered  a  little  glen  called  Digo,  where  they 
stopped  amongst  the  high,  luxuriant,  aromatic  grasses. 
We  had  only  been  in  the  saddle  four  and  one-half  hours, 
and  I  thought  they  were  merely  halting  for  tea  again. 
But  no,  they  had  had  enough  for  that  day,  for  up  went  the 
tents.  When  I  thought  of  our  poor  lean  horses  and  mules 
I  raised  no  objection.  In  fact,  it  was  quite  a  relief,  as 
well  as  a  novelty,  to  be  exempt  from  the  responsibilities 
incident  to  the  leadership  of  a  caravan,  and  after  our 
late  fatigues,  and  the  strain  and  anxiety  we  had  under¬ 
gone,  the  long  night  ’s  rests  did  us  a  world  of  good.  So 
long  as  we  were  favored  with  the  escort,  we  could  afford 
to  take  things  quietly;  after  they  left  us  we  should  be 
able  to  make  as  long  marches  as  we  liked. 


200 


EXPLORATION,  travel  and  invention 


The  rest  of  the  day  was  as  beautiful  as  the  spot  we 
encamped  in.  We  set  the  end  of  the  tent  that  looked 
towards  the  north  open,  so  as  to  let  in  the  light  breezes 
which  wafted  down  the  winding  glen;  but  the  other  end 
we  kept  shut,  for  the  sun  was  decidedly  hot.  I  lay  and 
slumbered  for  some  time,  partly  listening  to  the  babble 
of  a  little  brook  which  mingled  with  the  talk  and  laughter 
of  the  Tibetans,  partly  playing  with  the  beads  of  my 
rosary,  and  watching  the  rods  of  sunshine,  which  filtered 
in  through  the  top  of  the  tent,  as  they  glinted  on  their 
polished  surfaces.  The  thermometer  went  up  to  19°.  1  C. 
or  66°  4  Falir.  In  fact,  it  was  quite  idyllic  and  summery, 
the  last  summer  day  we  were  destined  to  have. 

The  Tibetans  were  masters  in  the  art  of  travelling  com¬ 
fortably  and  cheerfully.  As  soon  as  the  order  was  given 
to  halt,  a  troop  of  servants  ran  forward,  and  in  a  mar¬ 
velously  'short  space  of  time  had  the  officers’  tent  up. 
Their  saddles,  bridles,  saddle-bags,  and  other  accoutre¬ 
ments  were  flung  carelessly  on  the  ground  round  about, 
and  their  muskets  placed  across  the  forked  supports,  so  as 
to  keep  them  off  the  damp  ground.  As  the  weather  was  so 
fine  everybody  sat  outside,  and  with  the  interest  of  adepts 
studied  the  preparation  of  their  meals,  an  art  that 
Asiatics  love  to  practice  above  all  others.  They  were 
unsurpassed  in  getting  argol  alight,  and  with  the  help 
of  the  bellows,  very  clever  in  directing  a  tongue  of  flame 
against  the  side  of  their  kettle,  so  that  the  water  used  to 
boil  in  next  to  no  time.  They  prepared  their  tsamba 
in  small  wooden  bowls,  very  like  our  Mongolian  bowls. 
Some  of  them  used  to  knead  the  mass  with  their  right 
hand,  and  add  powdered  cheese  to  the  concoction.  When 
they  ate  meat,  they  held  it  with  the  left  hand  and  shaved 
off  small  pieces  with  a  knife  held  in  their  right  hand  — 
much  as  an  English  farm  laborer  eats  his  bread  and 
bacon.  Anna  Tsering  used  for  this  purpose  an  English 
pen-knife  ‘  ‘  made  in  Germany,  ’  ’  which  came,  he  said,  from 
Ladak. 

I  was  very  anxious  to  secure  specimens  of  several 
parts  of  their  equipment  and  outfit,  but  they  asked  such 


A  DASH  FOR  LASSA 


201 


exorbitant  prices  for  them  I  could  not  deal.  For  a  sword 
in  a  silver-mounted  scabbard,  studded  with  turquoises 
and  coral,  they  demanded  50  liang  (about  $42),  although 
it  was  not  really  worth  more  than  11  liang.  For  a 
prayer-mill  they  demanded  100  liang.  When  I  enquired 
about  their  muskets  and  lances,  they  told  me  they  be¬ 
longed  to  the  Government,  and  they  durst  not  sell  them, 
at  any  price.  We  spent  a  good  many  hours  in  their  tents ; 
but  they  never  once  put  foot  inside  ours.  I  suppose 
Kamba  Bombo  had  forbidden  them  to  do  so,  for  I  had 
said  I  wished  to  be  left  as  far  as  possible  undisturbed. 

At  nine  o’clock  that  evening  the  thermometer  regis¬ 
tered  9°  1  C.  or  48°  4  Fahr.,  and  at  seven  o  ’clock  next  morn¬ 
ing  7°  8  C.,  or  46°  0  Fahr.  That  day,  the  13tli  August, 
there  were  only  eight  soldiers  left,  and  they  came  in 
from  the  north,  each  leading  a  spare  horse.  They  had 
probably  been  to  reconnoitre,  and  conferred  a  long  time 
with  their  chiefs  before  we  got  started.  We  now  crossed 
the  Sachu-sangpo  again;  it  carried  only  one-fourth  the 
volume  it  did  before.  This  time  we  forded  it  without 
the  slightest  mishap,  for  the  Tibetans  knew  exactly  where 
the  ford  was ;  still,  in  the  deepest  places  the  water  came 
up  to  the  horses’  girths.  The  men  of  our  escort  pulled 
oft  their  boots  before  entering  the  river,  and  put  them 
on  again  when  they  were  safely  across. 

A  short  distance  from  the  right  bank  we  came  to  fresh 
springs  and  good  grazing,  which  we  somehow  missed  on 
the  outward  journey,  and  there  we  put  up  for  the  night. 
We  had  thus  done  three  out  of  the  nine  stages,  although 
these  three  had  taken  us  four  days.  Next  morning  the 
Tibetans  were  to  leave  us;  but  we  were  now  on  such 
friendly  terms  with  them  that  we  did  not  at  all  like  the 
idea  of  parting  from  them;  we  felt  we  should  actually 
miss  them.  We  tried  to  persuade  them  to  go  a  little  bit 
farther;  but  they  had  done  their  duty,  and  would  do  no 
more.  I  threatened  that,  after  they  were  gone,  I  would 
stay  a  little  more  time  beside  the  Sachu-sangpo,  and  then 
turn  back,  and  once  more  make  for  Lassa.  “  Just  as 
you  please,”  they  answered.  “  We  were  ordered  to  con¬ 
duct  you  to  the  frontier,  and  we  have  done  so.” 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE 

DEAD  SEA. 


BY 

F.  W.  Lynch,  U.  S.  N. 

Commander  JP.  W.  Lynch  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1801  and  died 
in  Baltimore  in  1S65.  He  commanded  the  Exploring  Expedition 
described  in  the  volume  from  which  the  following  description  is 
abridged,  in  1848.  Later  he  was  in  the  Confederate  service  during 
the  Civil  War. 

For  the  more  complete  appreciation  of  this  paper  the  reader  should 
provide  himself  with  a  Bible  —  a  Concordance  and  a  map  of  Palestine 
—  by  referring  to  these  he  will  greatly  enhance  the  interest  and  widen 
the  information  he  will  gain  from  reading  it. 

SOON  after  noon,  we  passed  tlie  last  encampment  of 
black  tents,  and  turning  aside  from  tlie  line  of 
march,  I  rode  to  the  summit  of  a  hill  on  the  left, 
and  beheld  the  Holy  City,  on  its  elevated  site  at  the  head 
of  the  ravine ;  its  site,  from  that  view,  seemed,  in  isolated 
grandeur,  to  be  in  admirable  keeping  with  the  sublimity 
of  its  associations.  A  lofty  mountain,  sloping  to  the 
south,  and  precipitous  on  the  east  and  west,  has  a  yawn¬ 
ing  natural  fosse  on  those  three  sides,  worn  by  the  tor¬ 
rents  of  ages.  The  deep  vale  of  the  son  of  Hinnom; 
the  profound  chasm  of  the  valley  of  Jelioshaphat,  unite 
at  the  south-east  angle  of  the  base  to  form  the  Wady  en 
Nar,  the  ravine  of  fire,  down  which,  in  the  rainy  season, 
the  Kidron  precipitates  its  swollen  flood  into  the  sea 
below. 

Mellowed  by  time,  and  yet  further  softened  by  the  inter¬ 
vening  distance,  the  massive  walls,  with  tlieir  towers  and 
bastions,  looked  beautiful  yet  imposing  in  the  golden 
sunlight;  and  above  them,  the  only  thing  within  their 

From  “  Narrative  of  the  U.  S.  Expedition  to  the  River  Jordan 
and  the  Dead  Sea.”  Philadelphia. 

202 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  203 

compass  visible  from  that  point,  rose  the  glittering  dome 
of  the  mosque  of  Omar,  crowning  Mount  Moriah,  on  the 
site  of  the  Holy  Temple.  On  the  other  side  of  the  chasm, 
commanding  the  city  and  the  surrounding  hills,  is  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  its  slopes  darkened  with  the  foliage  of 
olive-trees,  and  on  its  very  summit  the  former  Church  of 
the  Ascension,  now  converted  into  a  mosque.  .  .  . 

The  ravine  widened  as  we  approached  Jerusalem; 
fields  of  yellow  grain,  orchards  of  olives  and  figs,  and 
some  apricot-trees,  covered  all  the  land  in  sight  capable 
of  cultivation;  but  not  a  tree,  nor  a  bush,  on  the  barren 
hill-sides.  The  young  figs,  from  the  size  of  a  currant  to  a 
plum,  wrere  shooting  from  the  extremities  of  the  branches, 
while  the  leaf-buds  were  just  bursting.  Indeed,  the  fruit 
of  the  fig  appears  before  the  leaves  are  formed,  and  thus, 
when  our  Saviour  saw  a  fig-tree  in  leaf,  he  had,  humanly  * 
speaking,  reason  to  expect  to  find  fruit  upon  it. 

Although  the  mountain-sides  were  barren,  there  were 
vestiges  of  terraces  on  nearly  all  of  them.  On  the  slope 
of  one  there  were  twenty-four,  which  accounts  for  the 
redundant  population  this  country  once  supported. 

Ascending  the  valley,  which,  at  every  step,  presented 
more  and  more  an  increasing  luxuriance  of  vegetation, 
the  dark  hue  of  the  olive,  with  its  dull,  white  blossoms, 
relieved  by  the  light,  rich  green  of  the  apricot  and  the 
fig,  and  an  occasional  pomegranate,  thickly  studded  with 
its  scarlet  flowers,  we  came  to  En  Rogel,  the  Well  of  Job, 
or  of  Nehemiah  (where  the  fire  of  the  altar  was  recov¬ 
ered),  with  cool,  delicious  water,  118  feet  deep,  and  a 
small,  arched,  stone  building  over  it. 

On  our  right,  was  the  Mount  of  Offence,  where  Solomon 
worshipped  Aslitaroth:  before  us,  in  the  rising  slope  of 
the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  had  been  the  kings  ’  gardens  in 
the  palmy  days  of  Jerusalem:  a  little  above,  and  farther 
to  the  west,  were  the  pool  of  Siloam  and  the  fountain  of 
the  Virgin:  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  chasm  was  the 
village  of  Siloam,  where,  it  is  said,  Solomon  kept  his 
strange  wives;  and,  below  it,  the  great  Jewish  burial- 
ground,  tessellated  with  the  flat  surfaces  of  grave-stones ; 


204 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


and,  near  by,  tlie  tombs  of  Absalom,  Zacliarias,  and 
Jeliosliaphat ;  and,  above  and  beyond,  and  more  dear  in  its 
associations  than  all,  the  garden  of  Gethsemane. 

We  here  turned  to  the  left,  np  the  valley  of  the  son  of 
Hinnom,  where  Saul  was  anointed  king;  and,  passing  a 
tree  on  the  right,  which,  according  to  tradition,  indicates 
the  spot  where  Isaiah  was  sawn  asunder ;  and  by  a  cave 
in  which  it  is  asserted  that  the  apostles  concealed  them¬ 
selves  when  thev  forsook  their  Master:  and  under  the 

* 

Aceldama,  bought  with  the  price  of  blood;  and  near  the 
pool  in  the  garden  of  Ilrias,  where,  from  his  palace,  the 
king  saw  Batlisheba  bathing;  we  traveled  slowly  along 
the  skirts  of  Mount  Zion,  near  the  summit  of  which 
towered  a  mosque,  above  the  tomb  of  David. 

Following  the  curve  of  the  vale  of  Hinnom,  the  Ge- 
*  henna  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  rounds  gradually  to 
the  north,  with  the  Hill  of  Evil  Counsel*  on  our  left,  we 
proceeded  to  the  lower  pool  of  Gihon,  where,  at  5  P.  M., 
we  were  compelled  to  halt. 

We  pitched  our  tents  upon  a  terrace,  just  above  where 
the  aqueduct  crosses  from  Solomon’s  pool,  with  Zion  gate 
immediately  over  us,  and,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  below  the 
tower  of  Hippacus  and  the  Jaffa  gate.  In  a  line  with  us, 
above  the  Jaffa  gate,  was  the  upper  pool  of  Gihon,  with 
a  number  of  Turkish  tombs  near  it.  On  the  opposite,  or 
western  side  of  the  ravine,  were  old,  gray,  barren  cliffs, 
with  excavated  tombs  and  caverns.  The  lower  pool, 
beneath  the  camp,  is  formed  by  two  huge,  thick  walls 
across  the  chasm.  The  aqueduct  is  led  along  the  upper 
edge  of  the  lower  one;  and  the  surface  of  the  wall  serves 
as  a  bridge,  over  which  passes  the  road  to  Bethlehem  — 
the  one  traversed  bv  our  Saviour,  on  his  first  visit  to 
Jerusalem. 

Passing  a  large  tomb  which  stands  conspicuous  to  the 
north,  we  camped  a  little  off  the  Jaffa  road,  beside  an 
olive-tree,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  distant  from  the  city; 

*  So  called,  from  the  tradition  that  on  it  Caiaphas  dwelt  when  he 
counselled  with  the  Jews, 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  205 


and  as  far  south-west  from  the  reputed  place  where  the 
Empress  Helena  was  buried,  and  immediately  west  of  the 
site  most  probably  occupied  by  the  besieging  camp  of  the 
Roman  army  under  Titus.  There  were  many  fields  of 
grain  around  us,  occasionally  separated  by  low  walls  of 
uncut  and  uncemented  stone.  There  were  few  trees,  and 
the  mountains,  from  their  summits  two-thirds  down,  were 
masses  of  brown  rock  without  soil  and  unrelieved  by  ver¬ 
dure.  South-west  from  us,  about  a  mile  distant,  was  a 
large  building,  its  towers  .just  visible  over  an  intervening 
ridge.  It  was  the  Greek  convent  of  the  Holy  Cross, 
where,  we  were  told,  “  is  the  earth  that  nourished  the 
root,  that  bore  the  tree,  that  yielded  the  timber,  that  made 
the  cross.” 

It  is  from  this  quarter  that  the  appearance  of  Jerusa¬ 
lem  has  been  usually  described.  Looking  hence  upon 
the  city,  but  little  above  a  level,  it  is  certainly  less  grand 
and  imposing  than  from  the  gorge  of  the  valley  to  the 
south-east,  where  it  towers  majestically  above  the  spec¬ 
tator.  Yet,  beheld  even  from  this  point, There  is  no  other 
city  in  the  world  which  can  compare  with  it  in  position. 
It  does  not,  like  other  cities,  present  an  indefinite  mass 
of  buildings,  which  must  be  viewed  in  detail  before  the 
eye  can  be  gratified ;  but,  with  only  its  dome-roofs  swelling 
above  the  time-stained  and  lofty  walls,  Jerusalem  sits 
enthroned,  a  queen  in  the  midst  of  an  empire  of  desola¬ 
tion.  Apart  from  its  associations,  we  look  upon  it  in 
admiration;  but,  connected  with  them,  the  mind  is  filled 
with  reverential  awe,  as  it  recalls  the  wondrous  events 
that  have  occurred  within  and  around  it. 

The  city  is  nearly  in  the  form  of  a  parallelogram,  about 
three-fourths  of  a  mile  long,  from  east  to  west,  and  half  a 
mile  broad,  from  north  to  south.  The  walls  are  lofty, 
protected  bv  an  artificial  fosse  on  the  north,  and  the  deep 
ravines  of  Jelioshaphat,  of  Gilion,  and  the  Son  of  Ilinnom, 
on  the  east,  south,  and  west.  There  are  now  but  four 
gates  to  the  city.  The  Jaffa  gate,  the  fish-gate  of  the 
New  Testament,  on  the  west;  the  Damascus  gate,  open¬ 
ing  on  the  great  northern  road,  along  which  our  Saviour 


206 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


traveled,  when,  at  twelve  years  of  age,  he  came  up 
wTith  his  mother  and  kindred;  the  gate  of  St.  Stephen, 
on  the  east,  near  the  spot  where  the  first  Christian 
martyr  fell,  and  overlooking  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat ; 
and  the  Zion  gate,  to  the  south,  on  the  crest  of  the 
mount.  Immediately  within  the  last,  are  the  habitations 
of  the  lepers. 

The  following  account  of  his  first  day  in  Jerusalem  is 
from  the  diary  of  the  youngest  member  of  the  party,  who 
was  sent  up  from  Ain  Jidy  in  advance  of  the  camp.  I 
give  it  as  the  unvarnished  recital  of  one  who  simply 
relates  what  he  saw. 

“  The  Via  Dolorosa,  or  Sorrowful  Way,  first  arrested 
our  attention,  and  our  guide  pointed  out  the  spot  where 
our  Saviour  fell  under  the  burden  of  the  cross.  A  little 
farther  on,  we  had  a  partial  view  of  the  mosque  of  Omar, 
above  the  high  walls  by  which  it  is  surrounded.  While 
we  gazed  on  it,  a  crowd  of  Abyssinian  pilgrims  called 
out  to  us  with  such  fierce  expressions  of  fanatic  rage  that 
cur  hands  instinctively  grasped  our  weapons.  The  move¬ 
ment  had  its  effect,  and  after  indulging  our  curiosity,  we 
passed  on  unmolested. 

“  Next  to  Mecca,  Jerusalem  is  the  most  holy  place  of 
Mohammedan  pilgrimage,  and  throughout  the  year,  the 
mosque  of  Omar  and  its  court  are  crowded  with  turbanned 
worshippers.  This  mosque,  built  upon  the  site  of  the 
Holy  Temple,  is  the  great  shrine  of  their  devotions.  It  is 
strictly  guarded  against  all  intruders,  and  there  is  a 
superstitious  Moslem  belief  that  if  a  Christian  were  to 
gain  access  to  it,  Allah  would  assent  to  whatever  he 
might  please  to  ask,  and  they  take  it  for  granted  that  his 
first  prayer  would  be  for  the  subversion  of  the  religion  of 
the  Prophet. 

“  In  one  of  the  streets  we  came  to  a  low  gate,  passing 
through  which  and  descending  a  long  flight  of  stairs,  we 
entered  upon  an  open  court  in  front  of  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre,  an  ancient  and  venerable  building.  Scat¬ 
tered  about  the  court  were  motley  groups  of  Jew  pedlers, 
Turks,  beggars,  and  Christian  pilgrims.  The  appearance 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  207 

of  a  poor  cripple  excited  my  compassion,  and  I  gave  him 
a  piastre ;  but  the  consequences  were  fearful.  The  war- 
cry  of  the  Syrian  pauper,  “backshish!  backshish !”  in¬ 
stantly  resounded  from  all  quarters,  and  we  were  hemmed 
in,  pressed,  and  swayed  to  and  fro  by  the  rabble.  Our 
cicerone  plied  his  stick  vigorously  in  our  defence,  and  it 
truly  seemed  to  be  gifted  with  miraculous  powers,  for  the 
blind  saw,  and  the  lame  walked,  and  amid  their  impreca^ 
tions  upon  our  Christian  heads  we  entered  the  church 

“  Just  within  the  door,  seated  on  a  raised  divan,  two 
sedate  old  Moslems  were  regaling  themselves  with  minia¬ 
ture  cups  of  coffee  and  the  everlasting  chiboque.  Imme¬ 
diately  in  front  of  the  entrance  is  the  stone  of  unction, 
upon  which,  according  to  tradition,  the  body  of  our  Lord 
was  anointed.  It  is  a  plain  slab  of  Jerusalem  marble, 
slightly  elevated  above  the  floor  of  the  church,  and  en¬ 
closed  by  a  low  railing.  The  pilgrims,  in  their  pious 
fervour,  crowding  forward  to  kiss  it,  prevented  our  near 
approach. 

‘  ‘  Turning  to  the  left,  we  saw  in  the  centre  of  the  main 
body  of  the  church  a  small  oblong  building,  which  con¬ 
tains  the  sepulchre.  There  were  different  processions 
crossing  and  recrossing  each  other  with  slow  and  meas¬ 
ured  pace,  each  pilgrim  with  a  taper  in  his  hand,  and 
the  numerous  choirs,  in  various  languages,  were  chanting 
aloud  the  service  of  the  day.  The  lights,  the  noise,  and 
the  moving  crowd  had  an  effect  for  which  the  mind  was 
not  prepared,  and  with  far  less  awe  than  the  sanctity  of 
the  place  is  calculated  to  inspire,  we  entered  the  sepul¬ 
chre.  In  the  middle  of  the  first  apartment,  for  it  is 
divided  into  two,  is  a  stone,  upon  which  the  angel  was 

seated  when  he  informed  the  two  Marvs  of  the  resurrec- 

%/ 

tion.  This  room  is  about  eight  feet  square,  and  beauti¬ 
fully  ornamented.  From  this  we  crept  through  a  narrow 
aperture  into  the  inner  apartment,  against  the  north  side 
of  which  is  the  sepulchre  in  the  form  of  a  low  altar. 
It  is  about  the  same  size  as  the  first,  and  between  the 
sepulchre  and  the  southern  wall,  there  is  barely  space  to 
kneel.  It  was  brilliantly  lighted  by  rich  and  costly 
lamps.  VoL>  iv  _i3 


208 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


“  From  the  sepulchre  we  were  led  to  see  the  pillar  of 
flagellation,  visible  through  a  hole  in  the  wall,  hut  we  did 
not  credit  the  pious  imposition.  Thence,  we  ascended 
to  the  altar  of  Calvary,  with  three  holes  beneath  it,  where 
were  planted  the  crosses  upon  which  the  Saviour  and  the 
two  thieves  were  crucified.  The  holes  are  cut  through 
beautifully  polished  marble.*  Near  by  is  a  fissure  in  the 
limestone  rock,  caused,  it  is  alleged,  by  the  earthquake 
which  closed  the  sad  drama  of  the  crucifixion.  This  rent 
is  certainly  not  an  artificial  one.  Before  leaving  the 
church,  we  visited  the  tomb  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  and 
the  place  where  the  true  cross,  it  is  said,  was  found  by 
the  Empress  Helena. 

“We  next  determined  to  visit  a  spot  respecting  the 
identity  of  which  even  the  mind  of  the  most  skeptical 
can  have  no  room  for  doubt.  Passing  through  the 
Damascus  gate,  we  skirted  the  northern  wall,  and  de¬ 
scending  into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  crossing  the 
bridge  over  the  dry  bed  of  the  Kidron,  we  commenced 
the  ascent  of  the  Mount  of  Olives.  We  soon  reached  the 
summit,  but  the  scorching  heat  of  a  Syrian  sun  did  not 
permit  us  to  enjoy  long  the  magnificent  view  it  afforded. 
Parts  of  the  Dead  Sea  were  visible,  and  looking  down 
upon  it,  we  felt  proud  in  being  able  to  say  that  we  were 
the  first  thoroughly  to  explore  this  sea,  which  has  for 
ages  kept  its  mysteries  buried  in  the  deep  bosom  of  its 
sullen  waters. 

“  On  our  return,  we  stopped  at  the  garden  of  Gethse- 
mane,  which  is  held  by  the  Latins,  who  have  enclosed  it 
with  a  wall.  After  repeatedly  knocking  at  the  gate,  we 
were  about  to  come  away,  when  it  was  opened  by  a  gar¬ 
rulous  old  Spaniard,  whose  visage  was  as  gnarled  as  the 
trees  we  now  saw  before  us.  The  garden  consists  of  eight 
enormous  olive-trees,  their  venerable  appearance  truly 
typical  of  old  age;  and  there  can  scarcely  be  a  reason¬ 
able  doubt  that  this  is,  indeed,  the  very  place  where  the 
Saviour  wept  and  prayed. 

*  The  writer  was  not  aware  that  the  surface  of  the  natural  rock 
had  been  cut  away,  and  marble  placed  upon  it. 


% 


THE  GARDEN  OF  GETHSEMANE 

Gethsemane  means  a  very  fat  valley — a  valley  of  oil — 
doubtless  so  called  because  of  the  olive  trees  which  grew 
there.  _ 

“And  they  came  to  a  place  which  was  named  Geth¬ 
semane;  and  He  saith  to  His  disciples,  “Set  ye  here  while 
I  shall  pray.” — Mark  xiv.  32. 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  211 

“  Crossing  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  ascending 
the  slope  of  Mount  Moriah,  we  passed  by  the  Golden 
Gate,  now  walled  up  by  the  Turks.  Why  it  is  called 
‘  golden  ’  I  am  unable  to  say,  unless  from  its  rich  and 
elaborate  sculpture. 

4  4  We  next  came  to  the  fountain  of  the  Virgin,  which 

flows  through  a  subterranean  passage  into  the  pool  of 

Siloam,  and  is  thence  distributed  along  the  slope  of  the 

valley.  The  pool  is  near  the  foot  of  the  mount,  and  is  a 

deep  oblong  pit,  with  fragments  of  columns  in  the  centre. 

There  are  steps  leading  down  to  it  on  the  left  side,  and 

the  water  is  muddv  and  shallow.  Here  Christ  restored 

%/ 

the  blind  man  to  sight. 

“  Re-entering  the  city  through  the  Jaffa  gate,  our  cice¬ 
rone  declared  ‘  by  the  body  of  Bacchus  ’  that  he  would 
show  us  the  greatest  sight  in  the  Holy  City.  It  was  the 
Armenian  convent  near  by.  We  entered  through  the 
portal,  and  were  ushered  into  an  antechamber  by  a  sour 
looking  old  monk,  where,  in  the  midst  of  a  crowd  of 
camel-drivers,  we  waited  for  permission  from  the  patri¬ 
arch  to  see  the  riches  of  the  convent.  We  were  first  shown 
the  portraits  of  all  preceding  patriarchs,  now  canonized 
as  saints  in  their  calendar;  while  that  of  the  present  one 
was  the  most  gorgeously  framed  —  par  excellence,  the 
greatest  saint  of  them  all.  Persons  well  versed  in  the  art 
of  discolouring  canvass  had  painted  these  miserable 
daubs,  which,  taking  the  portrait  of  the  present  patriarch 
as  a  fair  criterion,  bore  not  the  slightest  resemblance  to 
their  originals. 

“  We  then  entered  the  chapel,  the  chef-d’oeuvre  of  this 
costly  building.  The  most  tasteful  ornaments  were  the 
doors,  made  of  tortoise-shell  and  inlaid  with  mother-of- 
pearl.  The  walls  were  of  mosaic,  representing  saints  and 
devils  engaged  in  most  furious  combats;  but  unfortu¬ 
nately,  although  our  cicerone  zealously  endeavoured  to 
point  out  which  wrere  the  saints  and  which  the  devils,  we 
often  fell  into  a  mistake  respecting  them.  We  were 
shown  throughout  the  convent,  which  is  constructed  in 
the  well-known  Saracenic  style  of  architecture;  and  the 


212 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


patriarch  long  detained  ns  with  an  account  of  the  im¬ 
provements  he  intended  to  make.  .  .  . 

Eight  venerable  trees,  isolated  from  the  smaller  and 
less  imposing  ones  which  skirt  the  base  of  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  form  a  consecrated  grove.  High  above,  on  either 
hand,  towers  a  lofty  mountain,  with  the  deep,  yawning 
chasm  of  Jehoshaphat  between  them.  Crowning  one  of 
them  is  Jerusalem,  a  living  city;  on  the  slope  of  the 
other  is  the  great  Jewish  cemetery,  a  city  of  the  dead. 
Each  tree  in  this  grove,  cankered,  and  gnarled,  and  fur¬ 
rowed  by  age,  yet  beautiful  and  impressive  in  its  decay, 
is  a  living  monument  of  the  affecting  scenes  that  have 
taken  place  beneath  and  around  it.  The  olive  perpetuates 
itself,  and  from  the  root  of  the  dying  parent  stem,  the 
young  tree  springs  into  existence.  These  trees  are  ac¬ 
counted  1000  years  old.  Under  those  of  the  preceding 
growth,  therefore,  the  Saviour  was  wont  to  rest;  and 
one  of  the  present  may  mark  the  very  spot  where  he 
knelt,  and  prayed,  and  wept.  No  caviling  doubts  can 
find  entrance  here.  The  geographical  boundaries  are  too 
distinct  and  clear  for  an  instant’s  hesitation.  Here  the 
Christian,  forgetful  of  the  present,  and  absorbed  in  the 
past,  can  resign  himself  to  sad  yet  soothing  meditation. 
The  few  purple  and  crimson  flowers,  growing  about  the 
roots  of  the  trees,  will  give  him  ample  food  for  contem¬ 
plation,  for  they  tell  of  the  suffering  life  and  ensanguined 
death  of  the  Redeemer. 

On  the  same  slope  and  a  little  below  Gethsemane,  facing 
the  city,  are  the  reputed  tombs  of  Absalom,  Zachariah, 
St.  James,  and  Jehoshaphat,  the  last  giving  its  name  to 
the  valley.  Some  of  them  are  hewn  bodily  from  the 
rock,  and  the  whole  form  a  remarkable  group.  That  of 
Absalom  in  particular,  from  its  peculiar  tint,  as  well  as 
from  its  style  of  architecture,  reminded  us  of  the  descrip¬ 
tions  of  the  sepulchral  monuments  of  Petra.  It  is  eight 
feet  square,  surmounted  by  a  rounded  pyramid,  and  there 
are  six  semi-columns  to  each  face,  which  are  of  the  same 
mass  with  the  body  of  the  sepulchre. 

The  tomb  of  Zachariah  is  also  hewn  square  from  the 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  213 

rock,  and  its  four  sides  form  a  pyramid.  The  tomb  of 
Jeliosliaphat  has  a  handsomely  carved  door;  and  a  portico 
with  four  columns  indicates  the  sepulchre  where  St. 
James,  the  apostle,  concealed  himself. 

It  was  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshapliat  that  Melchisedec, 
king  of  Salem,  met  Abraham  on  his  return,  from  defeating 
the  five  kings  in  the  vale  of  Siddim.  In  the  depths  of 
this  ravine  Moloch  was  worshipped,  beneath  the  temple- 
of  the  Most  High,  which  crowned  the  summit  of  Mount 
Moriah. 

In  the  village  of  Siloam,  the  scene  of  Solomon’s  apos¬ 
tasy,  the  living  have  ejected  the  dead,  and  there  are  as 
many  dwelling  in  tombs  as  in  houses.  Beneath  it,  at  the 
base  of  the  Mount  of  Offence,  is  the  great  burial-ground, 
the  desired  final  resting-place  of  the  Jews  all  over  the 
world.  The  flat  stones,  rudely  sculptured  with  Hebrew 
characters,  lie,  as  the  tenants  beneath  were  laid,  with  their 
faces  towards  heaven.  In  the  village  above  it  and  in  the 
city  over  against  it,  the  silence  is  almost  as  death-like  as 
in  the  grave-yard  itself.  Here  the  voice  of  hilarity  or  the 
hum  of  social  intercourse  is  never  heard,  and  when  man 
meets  his  fellow  there  is  no  social  greeting.  The  air  here 
never  vibrates  with  the  melodious  voice  of  woman,  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  celestial  sound ;  but,  shrouded  from 
head  to  foot,  she  flits  about,  abashed  and  shrinking  like 
some  guilty  thing.  This  profound  silence  is  in  keeping 
with  the  scene.  Along  the  slope  of  the  hill,  above  the 
village,  the  Master,  on  his  way  to  Bethany,  was  wont 
to  teach  his  followers  the  sublime  truths  of  the  gospel. 
On  its  acclivity,  a  little  more  to  the  north,  he  wept  for 
the  fate  of  Jerusalem.  In  the  garden  below,  he  was 
betrayed,  and  within  those  city  walls  he  was  crucified. 
Everything  is  calculated  to  inspire  with  awe,  and  it  is 
fitting  that,  except  in  prayer,  the  human  voice  should  not 
disturb  these  sepulchral  solitudes. 

From  the  slope  of  the  Mount  of  Olives  projects  a  rock, 
pointed  out  by  tradition  as  the  one  whereon  the  Saviour 
sat  when  he  predicted  and  wept  over  the  fate  of  Jerus- 


214  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

alem.  It  is  further  alleged  that  upon  this  spot  Titus 
pitched  his  camp  when  besieging  the  city.  Neither  the 
prediction  nor  its  accomplishment  required  such  a  coinci¬ 
dence  to  make  it  impressive.  The  main  camp  of  the 
besiegers  was  north  of  the  city,  but  as  the  sixth  legion  was 
posted  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  the  tradition  may  not  be 
wholly  erroneous. 

A  little  higher,  were  some  grotto-like  excavations,  hypo¬ 
thetically  called  the  Tombs  of  the  Prophets;  and  above 
them  were  some  arches,  under  which,  it  is  said,  the 
Apostles  composed  the  creed.  Yet  above,  the  spot  is 
pointed  out  where  the  Messiah  taught  his  disciples  the 
Lord’s  Prayer. 

On  the  summit  of  the  mount  are  many  wheat  fields, 
and  it  is  crowned  with  a  paltry  village,  a  small  mosque, 
and  the  ruined  church  of  the  Ascension.  In  the  naked 
rock,  which  is  the  floor  of  the  mosque,  an  indentation  is 
shown  as  the  foot-print  of  the  Messiah,  when  he  ascended 
to  heaven.  Apart  from  the  sites  of  the  Temple,  of  Cal¬ 
vary,  and  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the  assigned  localities 
within  the  city  walls,  such  as  the  Arch  of  the  Ecce  Homo, 
and  the  house  of  the  rich  man  before  whose  gate  Lazarus 
lay,  are  unworthy  of  credit.  But  those  without  the  walls, 
like  the  three  first-named  within  them,  are  geographically 
defined,  and  of  imperishable  materials.  While  one,  there¬ 
fore,  may  not  be  convinced  with  regard  to  all,  he  feels  that 
the  traditions  respecting  them  are  not  wholly  improbable. 

From  the  summit,  the  view  is  magnificent.  On  the 
one  hand  lay  Jerusalem,  with  its  yellow  walls,  its  towers, 
its  churches,  its  dome-roof  houses,  and  its  hills  and  val¬ 
leys,  covered  with  orchards  and  fields  of  green  and  golden 
grain,  while  beneath,  distinct  and  near,  the  mosque  of 
Omar,  the  Harem  (the  Sacred),  lay  exposed  to  our  infidel 
gaze,  with  its  verdant  carpet  and  groves  of  cypress, 
beneath  whose  holv  shade  none  but  the  faithful  can  seek 
repose.  On  the  other  hand  was  the  valley  of  Jordan,  a 
barren  plain,  with  a  line  of  verdure  marking  the  course 
of  the  sacred  river,  until  it  was  lost  in  an  expanse  of  slug¬ 
gish  water,  which  we  recognised  as  the  familiar  scene  of 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  215 

our  recent  labours.  The  rays  of  the  descending  sun  shone 
full  upon  the  Arabian  shore,  and  we  could  see  the  castle 
of  Kerak,  perched  high  up  in  the  country  of  Moab,  and 
the  black  chasm  of  Zerka,  through  which  flows  the  hot 
and  sulphureous  stream  of  Callirohoe. 

No  other  spot  in  the  world  commands  a  view  so  deso¬ 
late,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so  interesting  and  impressive. 
The  yawning  ravine  of  Jehoshaphat,  immediately  beneath, 
was  verdant  with  vegetation,  which  became  less  and  less 
luxuriant,  until,  a  few  miles  below,  it  was  lost  in  a  huge 
torrent  bed,  its  sides  bare  precipitous  rock,  and  its  bed 
covered  with  boulders,  whitened  with  saline  deposit,  and 
calcined  by  the  heat  of  the  Syrian  sun.  Beyond  it,  south, 
stretched  the  desert  of  Judea;  and  to  the  north  was  the 
continuous  chain  of  this  almost  barren  mountain.  These 
mountains  were  not  always  thus  barren  and  unproductive. 
The  remains  of  terraces  yet  upon  their  slopes,  prove  that 
this  country,  now  almost  depopulated,  once  maintained  a 
numerous  and  industrious  people. 

North  of  Getlisemane,  nearer  the  bed  of  the  ravine  and 
the  one-arched  bridge  which  spans  it,  is  a  subterranean 
church,  in  a  grotto  reputed  to  contain  the  tomb  of  the 
Virgin  Mary. 

Returning  from  the  Mount  of  Olives,  we  passed  along 
the  hill  of  Zion,  and  made  another  circuit  of  the  city. 

A  little  below  the  gate  of  St.  Stephen  is  the  pool  of 
Bethesda,  where  our  Saviour  healed  the  paralytic.  It  is 
now  dry,  and  partly  filled  with  rubbish. 

Yet  farther  south,  in  the  face  of  the  eastern  wall,  near 
the  court  of  the  mosque  of  Omar,  is  the  Golden  gate,  now 
built  up.  Through  this  gate,  it  is  supposed,  the  Messiah 
entered  in  triumph  on  the  Sunday  preceding  his  cruci¬ 
fixion. 

Some  distance  down,  is  the  Fountain  of  the  Virgin; 
and  yet  farther  below,  the  pool  of  Siloam,  which  has  been 
mentioned  before.  The  water,  which  is  hard  and  unpal¬ 
atable  to  the  taste,  has  no  regular  current,  but  ebbs  and 
flows  at  intervals  of  a  few  minutes. 

North  of  the  city,  on  the  margin  of  the  Damascus  road, 


216  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

was  a  picturesque  scene  —  hundreds  of  Jews,  enjoying 
the  fresh  air,  seated  under  enormous  olive-trees  —  the 
women  all  in  white  shrouds,  the  men  in  various  costumes 
—  some  with  broad-brimmed  black  hats,  and  many  with 
fur  caps.  There  were  also  many  Turks  and  Christians 
abroad.  The  Jewesses,  while  they  enveloped  their  figures 
in  loose  and  uncomely  robes,  allowed  their  faces  to  be 
seen ;  and  the  Christian  and  the  Turkish  female  exhibited, 
the  one,  perhaps,  too  much,  the  other,  nothing  whatever  of 
her  person  and  attire.  There  was  also  a  marriage-proces¬ 
sion,  which  was  more  funereal  than  festive.  The  women, 
as  usual,  clothed  all  in  white,  like  so  many  spectres, 
chaunted  unintelligibly,  in  a  low,  monotonous,  wailing 
tone;  while  some,  apparently  the  most  antique,  for  they 
tottered  most,  closed  each  bar  with  a  scream  like  a  diap¬ 
ason.  The  least  natural  and  the  most  pompous  feature 
of  the  scene  was  the  foreign  consuls,  promenading  with 
their  families,  preceded  by  Janissaries,  with  silver- 
mounted  batons,  stalking  solemnly  along,  like  so  many 
drum-majors  of  a  marching  regiment.  As  the  sun  sank 
behind  the  western  hills,  the  pedestrians  walked  faster, 
and  the  sitters  gathered  themselves  up  and  hastened 
within  the  walls. 

The  present  walls  of  the  city  were  rebuilt  in  the  16th 
century,  and  vary  from  thirty  to  sixty  or  seventy  feet  in 
height,  according  to  the  inequalities  of  the  ground.  They 
are  about  ten  feet  thick  at  the  base,  narrowing  to  the  top. 
The  stones  are  evidently  of  different  eras,  extending  back 
to  the  period  of  the  Roman  sway,  if  not  to  the  time  when 
Judea  was  an  independent  kingdom*  Some  massive 
pieces  near  the  south-eastern  angle  bear  marks  of  great 
antiquity.  From  a  projecting  one,  the  Turks  have  a  pre¬ 
diction  that  Mohammed,  their  Prophet,  will  judge  his 
followers. 

On  the  third  day  after  our  arrival,  we  went  to  Bethle¬ 
hem,  two  hours  distant.  Going  out  to  the  Jaffa  gate,  and 
obliquely  descending  the  western  flank  of  Mount  Zion,  he 
crossed  the  valley  of  the  Son  of  Hinnom  (Wady  Gehenna, 
or  valley  of  Hell),  by  the  wall  of  the  lower  pool  of  Gihon. 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  217 


The  road  then  turned  southwardly,  and  ran  mostly  parallel 
with  the  aqueduct  from  Solomon’s  pools.  This  aqueduct 
consists  of  stones  hollowed  into  cylinders,  well  cemented 
at  the  joints,  and  supported  upon  walls  or  terraces  of  rock 
or  earth,  and  mostly  concealed  from  sight.  Here  and 
there,  a  more  than  usual  luxuriance  of  vegetation  indi¬ 
cated  places  where  water  was  drawn  from  it  to  irrigate 
the  olive  orchards  which,  for  much  of  the  way,  abounded 
on  our  left;  and  occasionally,  a  stone  drawn  aside  dis¬ 
closed  a  fracture  in  the  trough  beneath,  where  the  traveler 
might  quench  his  thirst. 

We  soon  came  to  the  well  of  the  Magi,  assigned  by  tra¬ 
dition  as  the  spot  where  the  star  reappeared  to  the  wise 
men  from  the  east.  The  country  on  our  left  was  here 
broken  and  rough,  and  on  the  right  was  the  plain  of 
Rephaim,  with  the  convent  of  John  the  Baptist,  erected 
on  the  spot  where  the  great  precursor  was  born,  and  the 
grotto  where  the  Virgin  Mary  pronounced  that  sublime 
hymn,  beginning  “  My  soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord.” 
We  next  came  to  the  tomb  of  Rachel,  in  the  plain  of 
Ramah  —  a  modern  Turkish  building,  but  the  locality  of 
which  is  believed  to  be  correctly  assigned.  It  is  a  small 
building,  with  two  apartments,  the  one  over  the  tomb 
being  surmounted  by  a  dome.  On  the  right  was  the  wil¬ 
derness  of  St.  John,  wherein  the  Baptist  practised  his 
austerities.  In  that  direction,  too,  is  the  valley  of  Elah, 
where  David  slew  the  giant ;  and  in  the  valley  before  us, 
it  is  said  the  army  of  Sennacherib  the  Assyrian  was  en¬ 
camped,  when 

u  The  angel  of  death  spread  his  wings  on  the  blast.” 

Ascending  the  hill  from  the  tomb,  and  for  the  second  time 
during  the  ride  recognizing  the  Dead  Sea  through  gorges 
in  the  mountains,  we  passed  some  extensive  olive  or¬ 
chards,  and  after  turning  aside  to  the  left  to  look  at  a 
nearly  dry  cistern  called  David’s  Well,  and  admiring  the 
luxuriant  groves  of  olives  and  figs,  and  the  many  vine¬ 
yards  which  beautify  the  head  of  the  ravine  of  Ta’amirah, 
we  entered  Bethlehem,  the  “  city  of  King  David,”  and  the 
birthplace  of  the  Redeemer.  .  .  . 


218 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


To  the  east  of  Bethlehem  is  the  hill  where  the  shep¬ 
herds  heard  the  annunciation  of  the  birth  of  the  Messiah ; 
and  in  the  plain  below,  the  field  where  llutk  gleaned  after 
the  reapers.  The  country  around  was  luxuriant  with 
vegetation  and  the  yellow  grain,  even  as  we  looked,  was 
falling  beneath  the  sickle.  Variegated  flint,  chalk  and 
limestone,  without  fossils,  cropped  out  occasionally  on  the 
hill-sides;  but  along  the  lower  slopes,  and  in  the  bottom 
of  the  valley,  were  continuous  groves,  with  a  verdant 
carpet  beneath  them.  It  was  the  most  rural  and  the  love¬ 
liest  spot  we  had  seen  in  Palestine. 

On  the  Dead  Sea. 

At  8.30,  started  again  and  steered  E.  S.  E.,  sounding 
every  five  minutes,  the  depth  from  one  to  one  and  three- 
quarter  fathoms;  white  and  black  slime  and  mud.  A 
swallow  flew  by  us.  At  8.52,  stopped  to  take  compass 
bearings.  Seetzen  saw  this  salt  mountain  in  1806,  and 
savs  that  he  never  before  beheld  one  so  torn  and  riven; 
but  neither  Costigan  nor  Molyneaux,  who  were  in  boats, 
came  farther  south  on  the  sea  than  the  peninsula.  With 
regard  to  this  part,  therefore,  which  most  probably  covers 
the  guilty  cities  — 

“  We  are  the  first 
That  ever  burst 
Into  this  silent  sea.” 

At  9,  the  water  shoaling,  hauled  more  off  shore.  Soon 
after,  to  our  astonishment,  we  saw  on  the  eastern  side  of 
TTsdum,  one-third  the  distance  from  its  north  extreme,  a 
lofty,  round  pillar,  standing  apparently  detached  from  the 
general  mass,  at  the  head  of  a  deep,  narrow,  and  abrupt 
chasm.  We  immediately  pulled  in  for  the  shore,  and  Dr. 
Anderson  and  I  went  up  and  examined  it.  The  beach 
was  a  soft,  slimy  mud  encrusted  with  salt,  and  a  short 
distance  from  the  water,  covered  with  saline  fragments 
and  flakes  of  bitumen.  We  found  the  pillar  to  be  of  solid 
salt,  capped  with  carbonate  of  lime,  cylindrical  in  front 
and  pyramidal  behind.  The  upper  or  rounded  part  is 
about  forty  feet  high,  resting  on  a  kind  of  oval  pedestal, 


IN  AND  ABOUT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  DEAD  SEA  219 

from  forty  to  sixty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  It 
slightly  decreases  in  size  upwards,  crumbles  at  the  top, 
and  is  one  entire  mass  of  crystallization.  A  prop,  or  but¬ 
tress,  connects  it  with  the  mountain  behind,  and  the 
whole  is  covered  with  debris  of  a  light  stone  color.  Its 
peculiar  shape  is  doubtless  attributable  to  the  action  of 
the  winter  rains.  The  Arabs  had  told  us  in  vague  terms 
that  there  was  to  be  found  a  pillar  somewhere  upon  the 
shores  of  the  sea ;  but  their  statements  in  all  other  re¬ 
spects  had  proved  so  unsatisfactory,  that  we  could  place 
no  reliance  upon  them.* 

At  10.10,  returned  to  the  boat  with  large  specimens. 
The  shore  was  soft  and  very  yielding  for  a  great  distance ; 
the  boats  could  not  get  within  200  yards  of  the  beach, 
and  our  foot-prints  made  on  landing,  were,  when  we  re¬ 
turned,  incrusted  with  salt. 

Some  of  the  Arabs,  when  they  came  up,  brought  a 
species  of  melon  they  had  gathered  near  the  north  spit  of 
Usdum.  It  was  oblong,  ribbed,  of  a  dark  green  color, 
much  resembling  a  cantelope.  When  cut,  the  meat  and 
seeds  bore  the  same  resemblance  to  that  fruit,  but  were 
excessively  bitter  to  the  taste.  A  mouthful  of  quinine 
could  not  have  been  more  distasteful,  or  adhered  longer 
and  more  tenaciously  to  the  reluctant  palate. 

Intending  to  examine  the  south  end  of  the  sea,  and  then 
proceed  over  to  the  eastern  shore  in  the  hope  of  finding 
water,  we  discharged  all  our  Arabs  but  one,  and  sharing 
our  small  store  of  water  with  them,  and  giving  them 
provisions,  we  started  again  at  10.30,  and  steered  south. 

*  A  similar  pillar  is  mentioned  by  Josephus,  who  expresses  the  belief 
of  its  being  the  identical  one  into  which  Lot’s  wife  was  transformed. 
His  words  are,  u  But  Lot’s  wife  continually  turning  back  to  view  the 
city  as  she  went  from  it,  and  being  too  nicely  inquisitive  what  would 
become  of  it,  although  God  had  forbidden  her  so  to  do,  was  changed 
into  a  pillar  of  salt,  for  I  have  seen  it,  and  it  remains  at  this  day.” — 
1  Josephus’  Antiq.,  hook  1,  chap.  12. 

Clement  of  Rome,  a  contemporary  of  Josephus,  also  mentions  this 
pillar,  and  likewise  Irenasus,  a  writer  of  the  second  century,  who,  yet 
more  superstitious  than  the  other  two,  adds  the  hypothesis,  how  it 
came  to  last  so  long  with  all  its  members  entire.  Reland  relates  an 
old  tradition  that  as  fast  as  any  part  of  this  pillar  was  washed  away, 
it  was  supernaturally  renewed. 


220  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

At  10.42  a  large  black  and  white  bird  flew  up,  and 
lighted  again  upon  the  shore.  The  salt  on  the  face  of 
Usdum  appeared  in  the  form  of  spiculae.  At  11.07,  came 
to  the  cave  in  Usdum  described  by  Dr.  Robinson;  kept  on, 
to  take  meridian  observation  at  the  extreme  south  end 
of  the  sea.  11.28,  unable  to  proceed  any  further  south 
from  shallowness  of  the  water,  having  run  into  six  inches, 
and  the  boats’  keels  stirring  uji  the  mud.  The  Fanny 
Skinner  having  less  draught,  was  able  to  get  a  little 
nearer  to  the  shore,  but  grounded  300  yards  off.  Mr.  Dale 
landed  to  observe  for  the  latitude.  His  feet  sank  first 
through  a  layer  of  slimy  mud  a  foot  deep,  then  through  a 
crust  of  salt,  and  then  another  foot  of  mud,  before  reach¬ 
ing  a  firm  bottom.  The  beach  was  so  hot  as  to  blister  the 
feet.  From  the  water’s  edge,  he  made  his  way  with  diffi¬ 
culty  for  more  than  a  hundred  yards  over  black  mud, 
coated  with  salt  and  bitumen.  .  .  . 

In  returning  to  the  boat,  one  of  the  men  attempted  to 
carry  Mr.  Dale  to  the  water,  but  sunk  down,  and  they  were 
obliged  separately  to  flounder  through.  When  they 
could,  they  ran  for  it.  They  describe  it  as  like  running 
over  burning  ashes  —  the  perspiration  starting  from 
every  pore  with  the  heat.  It  was  a  delightful  sensation 
when  their  feet  touched  the  water,  even  the  salt,  slimy 
water  of  the  sea,  then  at  the  temperature  of  88°. 

The  southern  shore  presented  a  mud-flat,  which  is  ter¬ 
minated  by  the  high  hills  bounding  the  Gfhor  to  the  south¬ 
ward.  A  very  extensive  plain  or  delta,  low  and  marshy 
toward  the  sea,  but  rising  gently,  and,  farther  back, 
covered  with  luxuriant  green,  is  the  outlet  of  Wady  es 
Safieh  (clear  ravine),  bearing  S.  E.  by  S.  Anxious  to 
examine  it,  we  coasted  along,  just  keeping  the  boat  afloat, 
the  in-shore  oars  stirring  up  the  mud.  The  shore  was 
full  three-fourths  of  a  mile  distant,  the  line  of  demarca¬ 
tion  scarce  perceptible,  from  the  stillness  of  the  water, 
and  the  smooth,  shining  surface  of  the  marsh.  On  the 
flat  beyond,  were  lines  of  drift-wood,  and  here  and  there, 
in  the  shallow  water,  branches  of  dead  trees,  which,  like 
those  at  the  peninsula,  were  coated  with  saline  incrusta- 


THE  HIGHWAY  TO  THE  EAST 

FROM  A  PHOTOGRAPH 

This  view  of  the  port  of  Port  Said  on  the  Suez  Canal 
represents  one  of  the  greatest  highways  of  commerce  in  the 
world.  Its  originator,  Monsieur  de  Lesseps,  projected  also 
the  Panama  Canal,  which,  however,  has  been  left  to  American 
brains  and  money  to  bring  to  a  successful  issue. 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  ROCK  TEMPLES  OF  CEYLON  223 


tion.  The  bottom  was  so  very  soft,  that  it  yielded  to 
everything,  and  at  each  cast  the  sonnding-lead  sank  deep 
into  the  mud.  Thermometer,  95°.  Threw  the  drag  over, 
but  it  brought  up  nothing  but  soft,  marshy,  light  colored 
mud. 

It  was  indeed  a  scene  of  unmitigated  desolation.  On 
one  side,  rugged  and  worn,  was  the  salt  mountain  of 
Usdum,  with  its  conspicuous  pillar,  which  reminded  us  at 
least  of  the  catastrophe  of  the  plain;  on  the  other  were 
the  lofty  and  barren  cliffs  of  Moab,  in  one  of  the  caves  of 
which  the  fugitive  Lot  found  shelter.  To  the  south  was 
an  extensive  flat  intersected  with  sluggish  drains,  with  the 
high  hills  of  Edom  semi-girdling  the  salt  plain  where  the 
Israelites,  repeatedly  overthrew  their  enemies ;  and  to  the 
north  was  the  calm  and  motionless  sea,  curtained  with  a 
purple  mist,  while  many  fathoms  deep  in  the  slimy  mud 
beneath  it  lay  embedded  the  ruins  of  the  ill-fated  cities 
of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  The  glare  of  light  was  blinding 
to  the  eye,  and  the  atmosphere  difficult  of  respiration. 
No  bird  fanned  with  its  wing  the  attenuated  air  through 
which  the  sun  poured  his  scorching  rays  upon  the  myste¬ 
rious  element  on  which  we  floated,  and  which,  alone,  of  all 
the  works  of  its  Maker,  contains  no  living  thing  within  it. 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  ROCK  TEMPLES  OF  CEYLON. 

BY 

A.  H.  Hallam  Murray. 

I  AWOKE  one  December  morning  to  find  myself  once 
more  off  the  coast  of  Ceylon,  and  going  on  deck 
saw  the  sun  rise  gloriously  behind  Adam’s  peak, 
which  stood  up  amongst  the  surrounding  mountains  clear 
against  the  Eastern  sky.  .  .  . 

We  started,  a  large  party,  in  the  Governor’s  saloon  for 

From  u  The  High  Road  of  Empire.”  Water  color  and  pen  and 
pencil  sketches.  London, 


224 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


a  twenty-mile  run  to  Matale.  Part  of  the  way  I  rode  on 
the  engine  with  Captain  Pirie,  and  greatly  enjoyed  the 
beautiful  country,  dense  woods  alternating  with  stretches 
of  paddy-fields  in  the  valleys,  with  small  villages  of  mud 
huts  amongst  the  cocoa-nut  groves,  and  bold  mountains 
rising  beyond.  On  arriving  at  Matale  we  found  the  car¬ 
riages  and  red  liveries  waiting  for  us,  and  drove  oft 
through  the  gay  and  picturesque  little  town,  thronged 
with  natives  in  bright  clothes,  and  two  miles  beyond, 
along  a  well-shaded  and  level  road,  to  the  monastery  of 
Alu  Vihara.  This  monastery  consists  of  a  series  of  small 
temples,  occupying  wedge-shaped  cavities  in  a  group  of 
gigantic  gneiss  rocks,  which  at  some  remote  period  must 
have  fallen  from  the  overhanging  mountains  behind  them. 
They  stand  on  a  height  above  the  road,  and  are  ap¬ 
proached  by  a  winding  path,  up  steep  flights  of  steps  and 
over  slopes  of  rock;  a  few  minutes’  walk  brought  us  face 
to  face  with  them. 

It  is  said  that  in  this  temple  or  temples  scribes  were 
employed  by  a  Sinhalese  king  to  reduce  to  writing  the  doc¬ 
trines  of  Buddha.  It  is  certainly  probable  that  writing 
was  unknown  at  the  time  of  Buddha,  and  many  people 
think  that  the  canon  of  Buddhist  scriptures,  till  then 
handed  down  orally,  was  first  written  down  in  Ceylon 
about  b.  c.  85. 

In  one  of  the  rock  chambers  is  a  huge  recumbent  figure 
of  Buddha,  some  40  feet  in  length,  cut  out  of  the  solid 
rock.  The  interior  of  the  temples,  profusely  decorated, 
was  being  thickly  repainted  with  oil  paint  of  the  brightest 
colors.  A  law,  passed  by  Sir  Arthur  Gordon,  compels 
the  priests  to  render  a  periodical  account  of  the  expendi¬ 
ture  of  their  funds,  which  are  considerable,  consequently 
they  were  everywhere  actively  wielding  the  paint-brush 
so  as  to  make  as  much  show  as  possible,  and  carving  new 
effigies  of  Buddha.  At  the  top  of  one  of  these  great  rocks 
there  is  an  artificial  indentation,  representing  a  huge 
footprint  some  three  feet  long.  This  is,  of  course,  one  of 
the  many  footprints  of  the  founder  of  the  faith  to  be 
found  in  Buddhist  countries;  the  most  celebrated  being 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  BOOK  TEMPLES  OF  CEYLON  225 


that  upon  Adam’s  peak.  To  reach  the  indentation  it  is 
necessary  to  climb  up  the  face  of  the  rock  by  roughly- 
hewn  steps.  .  .  . 

The  sun  was  rapidly  sinking  as  we  approached  Dam- 
bool.  A  path  to  the  left,  just  short  of  the  village,  strikes 
upwards  over  the  rounded  surface  of  one  of  the  gneiss 
rocks,  then  winds  amongst  fallen  boulders  and  bushes  and 
up  steep  steps  toward  another  stretch  of  rock  like  the 
first;  after  eight  or  ten  minutes’  walk  we  found  ourselves 
at  the  temple  gate.  Here  the  resthouse-keeper  from  Dam- 
bool  overtook  us  with  a  lantern,  for  when  the  sun  sinks 
it  soon  gets  dark,  and  the  way  is  far  from  easy  to  find. 

This  cave  temple,  from  its  antiquity,  its  size  and  the 
richness  of  its  decoration,  is  the  most  renowned  in  Cey¬ 
lon;  it  is  divided  into  five  chambers  of  unequal  size, 
formed  in  a  natural  wedge-shaped  cavity  of  the  rock,  and 
in  front  of  this  long  cave  is  a  platform  looking  over  the 
plain  and  the  hills  westward  and  down  the  wooded  slopes 
immediately  below.  In  the  large  trees,  including,  of 
course,  a  sacred  Bo-tree  ( Ficus  religiosa ),  growing  on 
and  about  the  edge  of  this  platform,  there  are  crowds  of 
monkeys  chattering  and  swinging  themselves  from  bough 
to  bough.  A  richly  sculptured  doorway  opens  into  the 
first  temple,  in  the  least  deep  part  of  the  cave,  where 
there  is  a  colossal  recumbent  figure  of  Buddha,  about  40 
feet  long,  carved  out  of  the  rock;  his  elbow  rests  on  his 
pillow,  which  is  in  creases,  indicating  the  weight  which 
draws  it  down.  This  is  the  attitude  which  represents  the 
Buddah  as  sinking  into  complete  Nirvana. 

The  other  temples  —  entered  from  a  balcony  or  gal¬ 
lery,  partly  of  rock  and  partly  masonry  —  are  larger, 
and  crowded  with  figures  of  Buddha,  mostly  seated,  and 
with  gigantic  figures  of  some  of  the  Kings  of  Kandy.  The 
walls  and  roof  are  covered  with  oil  paintings  of  angels 
standing  on  clouds,  with  nimbi  round  their  heads,  illus¬ 
trating  the  history  of  Buddhism,  the  Landing  of  Wejayo, 
the  Preaching  of  Maliinda  and  the  contest  between 
Destigaimanu  and  Elate,  in  which  the  combatants  are 
mounted  on  elephants.  The  table  in  front  of  the  great 


226  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

Dagoba,  where  the  worshippers  lay  their  offerings  of 
flowers,  was  covered  with  a  cloth,  much  stained  by  the  sur¬ 
rounding  lamps  and  candles.  I  was  attracted  by  a  mark 
upon  it,  and  looking  closer  discovered  it  to  be  a  large 
cotton  handkerchief  with  a  printed  portrait  of  Lord 
Dufferin  upon  it. 

By  the  time  we  had  seen  these  temples  and  a  dripping 
well  of  clear  water,  which  falls  from  the  middle  of  the 
ceiling  into  a  small  tank  below,  the  sun  had  set  in  a  glory 
of  gold,  and  the  effect  was  very  striking  as  we  looked  out 
from  the  darkness  of  the  temple,  through  the  pointed  arch 
of  the  doorway,  the  reflected  light  streaming  in  on  dim 
figures  of  worshippers  and  yellow-robed  priests  flitting 
about. 

A  friend  at  Kandy  had  strongly  recommended  me  not 
to  leave  Dambool  without  seeing  the  rock  fortress  at 
Sigiri,  eleven  miles  distant,  so  I  proceeded  to  make  ar¬ 
rangements,  and  eventually  found  a  man  with  a  bullock 
cart,  the  only  form  of  conveyance,  who  agreed  to  provide 
me  with  a  pair  of  trotting  bullocks  and  a  light  cart  on 
payment  of  fifteen  rupees :  he  explained  that  he  could  not 
do  it  for  less,  as  it  was  necessary  to  send  on  two  extra 
coolies,  six  miles  ahead,  with  the  relay  of  bullocks,  on 
account  of  the  elephants  which  stray  across  the  road  at 
night,  and  might  interfere  with  the  cattle  if  they  had 
not  sufficient  protection.  I  was  also  told  that  there 
wTere  plenty  of  clieeta  and  elk  about  Sigiri  and  its 
neighborhood. 

We  were  up  betimes  the  following  morning,  and  I  got 
under  way  at  seven,  but  the  light  wagon  proved  to  be 
very  much  the  reverse  and  too  heavy  for  the  tiny  bullocks 
to  trot  with,  and  those  sent  on  were  the  ordinary  heavy 
goers;  however,  the  road  was  in  part  a  mere  track 
through  the  thick  jungle,  and  so  rough  and  circuitous,  on 
account  of  tree  trunks,  that  I  doubt  whether  we  could  have 
trotted  much  even  if  we  had  had  other  kine.  We  took 
three  hours  to  do  the  eleven  miles,  and  a  pretty  tedious 
drive  it  was.  The  road  is  almost  level  all  the  way,  and 
the  forest  is  so  thick  and  interlaced  overhead  with 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  ROCIv  TEMPLES  OE  CEYLON  227 


brandies  that  nothing  could  be  seen  beyond  a  few  yards 
distant. 

The  ordinary  bullock  cart  of  Ceylon  is  a  springless 
affair,  a  mere  platform  on  two  wheels,  with  a  palmleaf 
hood  projecting  beyond  it  fore  and  aft.  On  it  a  driver 
with  taste,  sometimes  hangs  a  flower-pot  or  can,  and  in  it 
plants  a  gourd  or  some  such  plant,  which  trails  all  over 
the  hood.  We  had  nothing  of  that  sort,  however.  The 
resthouse-keeper  supplied  me  with  a  mattress  and  a  pil¬ 
low,  and  if  I  did  not  lie  down  I  had  to  sit  cross-legged  or 
dangle  my  legs  out  at  the  back.  The  “  boy  ”  who  accom¬ 
panied  me  as  guide  and  interpreter  was  incapable  of  act¬ 
ing  in  either  capacity,  for  he  had  never  been  to  Sigiri, 
and  his  English  vocabulary  was  of  the  most  limited.  He 
was  like  a  very  unattractive  old  woman,  with  a  red  petti¬ 
coat  and  grey  hair  in  a  knot  at  the  back.  A  group  of 
three  or  four  huts  are  the  only  human  habitations  to  be 
seen  along  the  route. 

Sigiri  is  an  immense  rock,  400  feet  in  height,  with  al¬ 
most  perpendicular  or,  in  fact,  overhanging  sides  rising 
abruptly  out  of  the  plain,  very  much  in  the  same  way  that 
the  Bass  rock  emerges  above  and  out  of  the  sea.  In  this 
rock-fortress  the  parricide  King  Karyapa  found  asylum 
in  the  fifth  century,  after  obtaining  the  throne  of  Ceylon 
by  the  murder  of  his  father,  Dliatu  Sena.  It  stands  in 
the  heart  of  the  great  central  forest,  and  the  only  habita¬ 
tion  near  it  is  am  empty  bungalow,  which  affords  shelter 
to  any  one  who  may  wish  to  stop  there,  but  contains  noth¬ 
ing  whatever  in  the  form  of  furniture.  A  path  from  it 
leads  to  the  steep  slopes  which  form  the  base  of  the  rock. 
On  them  are  the  remains  of  what  was  once  a  royal  palace. 
An  immense  boulder  has  had  its  top  sliced  off  to  form  the 
floor  of  a  hall,  which  is  still  surrounded  by  a  roughly- 
moulded  and  hewn  stone  cornice.  Here  and  there  are  put¬ 
log  holes,  which  seem  to  imply  a  continuation  in  wood¬ 
work,  and  on  one  side  is  a  higher  rock  furnished  with 
incised  steps  which  lead  to  a  flat  place  on  its  summit,  with 
a  hewn  tank,  about  10  feet  by  5  feet,  for  the  storage  of 
water.  Close  by  I  noticed  a  large  forest  tree  swaying 

Vol.  IV  — 14 


228 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


about  as  if  blown  by  a  strong  wind;  on  looking  a  second 
time  I  saw  that  its  branches  were  crowded  with  apes 
jumping  from  bough  to  bough,  some  frightened,  as  I 
imagined,  by  our  approach,  some  simply  swaying  the 
branches  for  fun. 

A  scramble  over  loose  stones  and  along  a  narrow 
gutter-like  path  hewn  out  of  the  steep  side  of  the  rock, 
then  a  climb  upon  a  bamboo  ladder,  brought  us  to  a  gal¬ 
lery  along  the  side  of  the  rock  with  a  high  masonry 
balustrade  or  wall  on  the  outside  and  the  rock  above  pro¬ 
jecting  over  head.  This  gallery  used,  I  believe,  in  former 
days  to  wind  in  spiral  fashion  up  to  the  top  of  the  rock; 
but  now,  unfortunately,  it  has  been  broken  down,  and  we 
soon  came  to  an  abrupt  halt,  with  a  deep  drop  in  front 
of  us,  where  the  wall  and  footway  were  broken  away. 
I  had  to  content  myself  with  the  extremely  beautiful  view 
toward  Matale  across  the  dense  sea  of  jungle  which  sur¬ 
rounds  the  rock. 

Above  this  gallery,  but  only  to  be  reached  by  rope  lad¬ 
ders,  of  which  we  had  none,  is  a  curious  cavity  or  pocket 
in  the  rocl£,  with  its  ceiling  covered  with  frescoes  repre¬ 
senting,  I  was  told,  remarkably  well-drawn  life-sized 
figures.  A  namesake  of  mine  had  recently  climbed  up 
to  this  pocket  and  had  made  tracings  of  the  frescoes ;  he 
said  the  place  was  now  the  stronghold  of  swallows  and 
hornets,  which  resent  the  intrusion  of  strangers.  At 
the  foot  of  the  rock  is  a  marshy  tank,  the  haunt  of 
crocodiles. 

The  drive  back  was  tedious  and  uneventful,  except  that 
in  a  small  forest  village  through  which  I  passed  I  en¬ 
countered  an  albino  woman ;  her  hair  was  light  and  color¬ 
less,  and  her  skin  was  much  freckled,  the  simplicity  of 
her  costume  accentuated  the  strangeness  of  her  appear¬ 
ance.  For  the  last  mile  we  found  the  road  thronged  with 
pilgrims  returning  from  Anuradhapura.  A  highly  pictur¬ 
esque  and  motley  crew,  with  brilliant  garments  and 
bright  red  umbrellas;  all  the  old  people  were  in  bullock 
carts  and  the  younger  ones  on  foot;  amongst  them  were 
many  priests  in  their  orange-colored  robes. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BURMA 


229 


I  reached  Dambool  at  five,  with  only  just  time  enough 
before  nightfall  to  rush  up  to  the  temple  again  and  make 
a  few  pencil  sketches.  It  was  quite  dark  when  I  left  the 
dim  lights  of  the  temple  and  began  my  return  walk.  I 
soon  found  that  it  was  hopeless  to  try  and  find  my  way 
down  the  steep  rock,  except  by  a  more  rapid  descent  than 
I  cared  for,  and  I  returned  to  the  temple,  where  I  found 
a  native  sufficiently  intelligent  to  understand  what  I 
wanted,  and  with  him  as  my  guide  and  lighted  by  a  screw 
of  paper  dipped  in  tallow,  which  smoked  and  smelled 
atrociously,  we  made  our  way  through  the  darkness  and 
found  a  man  from  the  resthouse,  at  the  bottom,  looking 
for  me  with  the  lantern. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BURMA. 

BY 

R.  Talbot  Kelly. 

LEAVING  the  bungalow  at  sunset,  a  two-hours’  ride 
in  the  starlight  brought  us  to  Sathwa.  The  road, 
so  called  by  courtesy,  was  terribly  bad,  and  riding 
would  have  been  difficult  even  by  daylight,  as  the  track 
(for  it  was  little  else)  had  been  so  badly  cut  up  by  cart 
wheels  during  the  rains,  which  were  only  just  over,  that 
it  was  scored  in  all  directions  by  ruts  a  foot  or  more  in 
depth,  which  the  sun  of  the  last  few  days  had  baked  as 
hard  as  bricks.  Added  to  this  was  the  fact  that  on  either 
side  were  dense  masses  of  jungle  and  forest  growths, 
which  effectually  impeded  what  little  light  there  was,  and 
hid  these  pitfalls  in  an  impenetrable  gloom.  I  consider 
that  it  was  more  by  good  luck  than  anything  else  that  we 
got  through  without  an  accident  or  damage  to  the  ponies. 
However,  we  reached  the  dak  safely  about  9  p.  m.,  and 
turned  in  early,  preparatory  to  our  start  at  sunrise. 

From  “  Burma  painted  and  described.”  London. 


230 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


I  was  interested  during  the  ride  to  hear  our  Burmese 
attendants  singing  at  the  pitch  of  their  voices,  an  ebulli¬ 
tion  which  I  attributed  to  pure  light-heartedness  until 
I  noticed  that  they  sang  loudest  where  the  road  was 
darkest.  In  reply  to  my  inquiry,  Maclennan  informed 
me  that  the  men  were  singing,  “  not  for  the  fun  of  it,” 
but  in  order  to  frighten  away  the  “  Nats.”  This  super¬ 
stitious  feeling  I  found  accounted  for  another  fact  which 
had  attracted  my  attention.  When  moving,  the  Burmese 
carts  are  always  accompanied  by  a  horrible  groaning  and 
squeaking  of  the  wheels;  I  suggested  a  little  grease  on 
the  axles,  but  learned  that  they  preferred  to  have  it  so, 
as  the  noise,  which  traveled  an  immense  distance  in  the 
still  air,  not  only  wards  off  the  evil  spirits  of  the  forest, 
but  also  serves  as  a  warning  to  their  wives  at  home  that 
the  ‘  ‘  master  ’  ’  was  homeward  bound,  and  would  shortly 
be  in  want  of  his  supper ! 

The  dak  at  Sathwa  was  much  as  others,  except  that 
the  flooring  boards  were  set  so  far  apart  that  we  experi¬ 
enced  as  much  breeze  from  underneath  as  from  the  open 
verandah,  and  one  had  to  be  careful  as  to  the  position 
of  the  legs  of  chairs  or  camp  bed,  and  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
while  taking  my  bath,  both  sponge  and  soap  dropped  be¬ 
tween  the  boards  and  had  to  be  sought  for  below  by 
candle-light. 

The  following  morning  elephants  had  arrived  and  were 
loaded  up  with  our  baggage  and  sent  off,  we  following  a 
little  later  on  pony-back. 

A  fatiguing  journey  through  “  paddy  ”  fields,  scrub 
jungle,  and  occasional  forest  patches,  lay  between  us  and 
Kokogon,  in  the  heart  of  the  forest  itself,  and  to  be  my 
headquarters  for  the  time  being. 

Traveling  was  slow  and  tedious  owing  to  the  absence 
of  roads.  In  the  cultivated  lands  the  only  pathway  con¬ 
sisted  of  the  tortuous  little  bunds  or  dykes  which  sepa¬ 
rated  the  irrigated  patches,  while  in  the  forest  dense 
undergrowth,  largely  of  thorns  and  creepers,  impeded 
progress  and  made  riding  difficult. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BURMA 


231 


I  was  very  much  surprised  at  the  speed  with  which  the 
elephants  covered  the  ground.  Through  the  difficult 
“  paddy  ”  land  they  were  quicker  than  the  ponies.  In 
some  places  the  bunds  were  very  narrow  and  slippery, 
while  every  here  and  there  were  little  creeks  crossed  by 
a  single  log,  or  else  by  means  of  a  ford  in  which  the 
ponies  floundered  heavily  in  mud  a  couple  of  feet  or  more 
in  depth,  yet  in  every  case  the  elephants  negotiated  these 
difficult  crossings  more  comfortably  than  the  ponies. 

The  ‘  ‘  paddy  ’  ’  was  ripe  and  harvesting  in  full  opera- 
tion.  The  Burmans  use  sickles  for  reaping,  cutting  the 
straw  half-way  up  so  as  to  gather  some  and  yet  leave 
enough  for  the  cattle  in  the  fields  to  browse  upon.  The 
rice  is  bound  into  sheaves  with  a  “  strap,”  as  in  England, 
and  is  later  on  carted  to  the  “  talin  ”  or  threshing-floor, 
where,  in  the  usual  Eastern  manner,  the  grain  is  trodden 
out  by  bullocks.  Winnowing  is  performed  by  means  of 
a  circular  tray,  about  two  feet  in  diameter,  which  is  tossed 
into  the  air  with  a  rotary  motion,  so  as  to  set  all  its  con¬ 
tents  spinning,  the  chaff  being  blown  away  while  the 
grain  falls  at  the  operator’s  feet.  .  .  . 

The  country  through  which  we  had  passed  was  ex¬ 
tremely  pretty  in  its  general  effect  —  immense  tracts  of 
‘  6  paddy  ’  ’  land,  interspersed  with  trees,  among  which 
were  the  villages  of  the  peasants,  in  many  cases  sur¬ 
rounded  by  groves  of  bananas  and  other  fruit-trees, 
while  large  pools,  overgrown  with  lotus,  were  a  common 
feature. 

The  moisture  in  the  saturated  land,  sucked  up  by  the 
powerful  sun,  filled  the  air  with  an  impalpable  mist  which 
enveloped  the  landscape  in  a  silver  haze,  and  gave  to  its 
features  a  suggestiveness  which  was  charming.  Dis¬ 
tances  which  were  not  really  great  appeared  to  be  im¬ 
mense,  and  the  sun,  shining  through  the  laden  atmos¬ 
phere,  glorified  even  the  monotony  of  the  rice-fields  with 
opalescent  tints,  amidst  which  the  brightly  colored  cos¬ 
tumes  of  the  natives  shone  like  jewels.  This  silvery 
curtain,  which  lends  such  enchantment  to  the  common¬ 
place,  I  found  to  be  general  in  the  cultivated  lands,  and 


232  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

during  tlie  few  hours  of  its  continuance  it  seems  to  en¬ 
velop  nature  in  a  poetic  glamour  difficult  to  describe. 

Our  entrance  into  the  forest  was  almost  abrupt,  the 
u  paddy  ”  land  being  succeeded  by  patches  of  kaing 
grass,  bamboo,  and  a  tangled  growth  of  all  kinds,  glitter¬ 
ing  under  a  hot  sun,  which  caused  the  steam  to  rise  from 
the  pools  and  damp  patches  of  the  paths  well  into  the 
day.  Some  of  the  vistas  were  very  lovely,  the  nearer 
points  standing  out  strongly  against  a  distance  hazy  in 
the  hot  air,  through  which  our  elephants  loomed  large 
and  almost  phantom-like. 

Huge  trees  of  to  me  as  yet  strange  growths  towered 
above  the  undergrowth,  their  individual  characteristics 
being  largely  lost  in  the  profusion  of  creepers  which 
envelojied  them  in  a  uniform  habit  of  leaves  and  flowers, 
and  whose  sinuous  stems  winding  through  the  grasses 
tripped  up  our  ponies  and  rendered  riding  slow  and  diffi¬ 
cult.  Evidently  the  haunt  of  game,  all  we  saw  on  this 
march  were  a  few  “  gyi  ”  or  barking  deer,  which  dashed 
across  our  path,  though  this  forest  abounds  with  tiger, 
panther,  and  elephant,  while  everywhere  among  the  suc¬ 
culent  undergrowth  were  signs  of  large  herds  of  ‘  ‘  pig.  ’  ’ 

Birds  there  were  in  plenty,  miners,  hoopoe,  king  crow, 
jungle  fowl  and  owls,  also  a  large  number  of  paddy  birds, 
the  female  of  which,  I  noticed,  is  not  white  but  parti¬ 
colored,  brown  predominating,  which  makes  her  very  diffi¬ 
cult  to  find  when  nesting.  Doves  were  cooing,  and  in  the 
nyoung-bin  trees  the  green  pigeon  was  whistling  a  melody 
which  Skeene  once  declared  to  be  a  few  bars  from  The 
Belle  of  New  York l  There  is  one  bird,  however,  which 
I  have  met  with  in  different  parts  of  Burma,  but  whose 
species  I  have  never  been  able  to  discover,  whose  song  . 
consists  of  a  distinct  musical  phrase  of  several  bars.  He 
is  a  small  bird,  with  a  liquid  note,  rich  and  full,  and  his 
song  sounds  gloriously  beautiful  in  the  often  solemn  sur¬ 
roundings  of  the  forest. 

Squirrels  were  there  in  large  numbers,  disputing  with 
the  monkeys  for  possession  of  the  nut-trees,  while  flitting 
across  the  glades  flights  of  parrots  flashed  brilliant  in  the 
sunlight. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BURMA 


233 


That  wild  animals  always  look  their  best  in  their 
natural  environment  is  a  truism  which  certainly  applies 
strongly  to  the  parrot.  Seen  at  home  as  a  caged  bird 
he  has  little  beauty,  and  might  almost  be  described  as 
grotesque.  Here,  however,  in  these  primeval  forests,  he 
is  a  creature  of  beauty  and  joy.  Hear  him  whistling 
softly  to  his  mate,  or  exchanging  calls  with  his  fellows  as 
he  sits  in  the  topmost  bough  of  a  cotton-tree,  200  feet 
above  ground.  Every  note  is  flute-like  and  coaxing,  and, 
as  his  song  floats  downwards  towards  you  through  the 
sun-bathed  air,  each  note  is  mellowed  and  sweetened  on 
its  journey.  Or  again,  as  a  flock  suddenly  launches  itself 
into  space,  and  plays  “  follow  my  leader  ”  through  the 
tree-tops,  what  could  be  prettier  than  they  as  their  orange 
beaks  and  long  slender  tails  glint  in  the  sunlight !  It  is 
a  revel  of  song  and  color  and  pure  light-heartedness 
foreign  to  their  caged  and  subdued  relatives  in  this 
country.  Here  a  parrot  is  simply  a  curiosity,  there  a 
beautiful  creature,  suited  to  its  surroundings,  and  bring¬ 
ing  an  air  of  gladness  and  color  into  what  might  other¬ 
wise  have  been  an  oppressive  exuberance  of  forest 
growth. 

Curiously  enough,  there  were  few  insects ;  no  doubt  as 
the  heat  was  intense  they  were  lying  dormant  in  the  leafy 
shades.  Butterflies,  however,  were  plentiful  and  of  great 
beauty. 

Traveling  in  the  paddy  land  had  been  difficult.  Here, 
however,  it  was  more  so;  the  open  glades  were  often 
marshy,  and  under  the  powerful  sun  were  giving  up 
steam  as  at  mid-day.  Riding  through  the  thickets  was  al¬ 
most  impossible  on  account  of  the  hidden  creepers  which 
made  it  difficult  for  the  pony  to  travel,  and  the  thorns 
which  lacerated  the  rider  and  the  beast  indiscriminately, 
so  that  of  two  evils  it  was  usually  better  to  stick  to  the 
open  and  be  grilled,  than  risk  the  difficulties  and  perhaps 
dangers  of  the  denser  forest. 

Few  signs  of  human  life  disturbed  the  solitude  of  these 
wilds.  Here  and  there  were  little  clearings  planted  in 
rice  or  sessamine,  over  which  grotesque  scarecrows  stood 


234 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


sentinel,  or  perhaps  an  occasional  liut  of  bamboo  and 
grasses  marked  the  halting-place  of  previous  travelers; 
and  once  I  saw  a  boy  engaged  in  snaring  wild-fowl  by 
the  aid  of  a  decoy  cock,  the  modus  operandi  apparently 
being  to  tether  the  bird  in  a  patch  of  short  grass,  where 
he  is  surrounded  by  a  circle  of  snares  composed  of  twigs, 
and  the  forest  bird,  responding  to  his  challenge,  comes 
down  to  fight  him  and  is  caught. 

Kokogon  is  practically  the  center  of  a  large  teak  forest, 
which  was  being  worked  by  the  Corporation.  Their 
bungalow,  which  is  some  little  distance  from  the  native 
village,  was  pleasantly  situated  in  an  island  of  grass  sur¬ 
rounded  by  dense  forest  and  jungle,  and  overlooking  the 
Kyouk-mee-choung,  a  forest  creek  or  river,  where  a  num¬ 
ber  of  elephants  were  at  work  clearing  a  “  pone  ”  of  logs 
brought  down  by  the  last  freshet. 

Behind  the  bungalow  were  storehouses,  stables,  and 
the  huts  of  the  woodmen,  among  which  moved  the  wives 
and  children  of  the  foresters  bringing  in  sticks,  and  kin¬ 
dling  fires  preparatory  to  cooking  the  evening  meal.  Below 
us,  in  the  shade  of  the  bungalow,  our  ponies  were  being 
attended  to  and  the  baggage  unloaded  from  the  elephants. 

Later  in  the  afternoon  all  the  elephants  at  work  in  the 
creek,  twelve  in  all  with  three  calves,  came  in  for  their 
evening  feed:  a  picturesque  sight,  as  each,  mounted  by 
its  “  oozi,”1  came  to  the  steps  of  the  bungalow  to 
“  salaam,’’  and  perhaps  receive  a  “  tit-bit,”  before  pro¬ 
ceeding  to  the  lines  where  rows  of  buckets  containing  rice 
are  waiting  ready  for  them.  After  feeding,  the  elephants 
go  down  to  the  creek  to  bathe  before  being  turned  into 
the  jungle  for  the  night.  Very  pretty  was  the  scene,  as 
the  declining  sun  caught  the  red  cliffs  which  formed  the 
river’s  banks,  and  lit  up  the  mixed  foliage  of  the  forest 
with  a  ruddy  light,  to  which  the  deep  gloom  of  the  shades 
offered  a  striking  contrast.  As  the  sun,  red  and  glorious, 
slowly  disappeared  behind  the  trees,  crickets  and  frogs 
began  their  evensong,  while  in  the  distance  the  trumpet¬ 
ing  of  an  elephant,  or  the  impatient  squeal  of  a  calf  which 

1  Driver, 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BURMA 


235 


had  temporarily  lost  its  mother,  were  the  only  sounds  to 
break  the  solemn  hush  which  comes  over  the  forest  at 
snn-down.  Presently,  as  the  evening  breeze  rustled 
through  the  tree-tops,  the  cry  of  the  jackal  and  hoot  of 
the  owl  broke  the  stillness,  and  the  rising  moon  completed 
the  poetic  feeling  of  a  scene  which  combined  so  much  of 
suggestion  with  its  solemn  beauty. 

Altogether  the  day’s  experience  had  been  of  extreme 
if  somewhat  bewildering  interest.  Many  sharp  contrasts 
had  presented  themselves  on  the  way,  culminating  in  this 
rich  forest  scenery,  which  as  yet  I  had  hardly  begun  to 
understand,  so  entirely  different  was  it  from  anything 
I  had  hitherto  seen.  Beautiful  but  impressive,  solitary 
yet  alive,  I  felt  that  I  must  discover  many  of  its  secrets 
before  I  could  hope  to  fully  appreciate  its  fascination 
myself  or  pen  an  adequate  description  for  my  friends. 

As  is  perhaps  generally  known,  teak,  pyingado  (iron- 
wood  trees),  and  several  other  species  are  “  protected  ” 
by  the  Government,  their  extraction  being  sanctioned 
under  certain  well-defined  rules.  Pyingado  is  too  heavy 
to  be  profitably  worked  except  locally  for  the  purpose  of 
railway  sleepers,  and  the  attention  of  the  great  firms  is 
entirelv  devoted  to  the  extraction  of  teak,  licenses  for 
which  are  granted,  and  zones  or  “  forests  ”  allotted  to 
them  in  consideration  of  the  rather  heavy  royalties 
charged  upon  the  logs  marketed.  Each  of  these  forests 
is  managed  by  a  representative  of  the  firm  concerned, 
assisted  by  several  subordinates  who  supervise  the  work 
being  carried  on ;  the  selection  of  trees  to  be  felled,  how¬ 
ever,  rests  entirely  with  the  Government  forest  officer, 
and  is  made  with  proper  regard  to  the  replenishment  of 
the  forests  under  his  control. 

The  trees  selected  are  “  girdled  ”  by  cutting  a  ring 
through  the  bark  and  sapwood  until  the  hard  wood  is 
entered,  the  result  being  that,  cut  off  from  any  supply 
of  moisture  from  the  roots,  the  tree  dies,  and  the  bark, 
leaves,  and  twigs  having  fallen  off,  the  naturally  seasoned 
tree  is  felled  at  from  two  to  three  years  after  girdling. 
The  trees  are  reckoned  first  or  second  class  trees  accord- 


236  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

ing  to  their  size,  the  former  being  from  6  to  7  feet  and 
the  latter  about  4%  feet  in  girth,  their  ages  varying  from 
35  to  120  years,  I  believe.  The  teak  is  a  handsome  tree, 
straight-stemmed,  as  a  rale,  branching  much  like  an 
acacia  at  about  25  or  30  feet  from  the  ground.  Its  leaves 
are  very  large,  shaped  like  an  elm  but  smoother,  and  they 
have  a  purple  blossom  which  stands  up  from  among  the 
foliage,  remaining  on  the  tree  for  a  considerable  time 
after  the  leaf  has  fallen. 

After  felling,  the  difficult  work  of  transport  begins.  In 
many  cases  the  logs  lie  in  inaccessible  parts  of  the  forest, 
which  necessitates  the  making  of  roads  and  building  of 
bridges  before  the  work  of  hauling  can  be  commenced. 
Large  numbers  of  elephants  and  bullocks  are  engaged  in 
this  work,  and  in  one  place  at  least  the  Corporation  have 
a  traction  engine  at  work.  In  this  process  of  transporta¬ 
tion  the  forest  rivers  or  creeks  are  used  to  the  utmost, 
until  finally  some  large  waterway  is  reached  by  means  of 
which  the  rafted  logs  may  be  floated  down  to  the  sea.1 

These  creeks  seem  to  be  more  or  less  of  the  same  char¬ 
acter.  Though  there  is  always  a  little  water  flowing  in 
the  bed,  it  is  only  after  rain  that  they  can  claim  any  title 
to  be  called  rivers.  Owing  to  the  steepness  of  the  water¬ 
shed  and  the  extraordinary  amount  of  rainfall  when  it 
occurs,  what  before  was  a  sleepy  succession  of  pools,  half 
stagnating  in  the  sun,  becomes  almost  immediately  a 
rushing,  swirling  river,  carrying  with  it  tree-trunks  and 
all  kinds  of  forest  debris.  These  floods  are  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  the  “  jungle  wallah,”  who  has  been  busily  em¬ 
ployed  in  teak  felling  and  hauling  in  readiness  for  a  rise. 
All  hands  are  busily  engaged  in  launching  logs  into  the 
stream,  along  whose  banks  are  stationed  parties  of  men 
and  elephants  shoving  oft  logs  should  they  strand,  and 
with  almost  superhuman  effort  and  at  considerable  risk 
of  life  relieving  a  “  jam,”  which  is  often  caused  by  the 

1 1  hope  I  am  not  exaggerating,  but  my  recollection  is  that  often  as 
long  a  period  as  nine,  or  in  some  cases  even  twelve  years  elapses 
between  the  girdling  of  a  tree  and  its  final  arrival  at  the  sawmills  at 
Rangoon. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BURMA 


237 


falling  of  a  forest  tree  where  the  flood  has  undermined 
the  bank.  It  is  a  time  of  high  pressure  and  strenuous 
effort  on  the  part  of  all  engaged  in  the  work,  for  these 
streams  form  the  easiest,  sometimes  the  only,  means  of 
transit,  and  a  freshet  when  it  occurs  must  be  utilized  to 
its  fullest  advantage.  I  am  told  that  it  is  not  infrequent 
for  men  engaged  in  the  teak  forest  to  be  out  for  two  or 
three  days  continuously,  the  whole  time  working  night 
and  day  under  the  extremest  physical  discomfort  caused 
by  drenching  rain  and  smothering  mud,  unable  for  a 
moment  to  relax  the  closest  concentration  upon  work 
which  demands  the  maximum  of  physical  endurance,  re¬ 
sourcefulness,  and  pluck.  The  river  falls  as  quickly  as 
it  rises,  and  leaves  the  logs  committed  to  its  charge 
stranded  in  piles  called  “  pones,”  or  perhaps  in  single 
logs  dotted  here  and  there  throughout  its  course.  These 
pones  are  usually  formed  by  an  obstruction,  such  as  an 
impending  rock,  or  where  a  log  sticks  upright  in  the 
muddy  bed.  In  some  cases,  however,  the  logs  are  col¬ 
lected  into  a  “  pone  ”  by  means  of  a  boom  placed  across 
the  creek  to  prevent  them  going  farther  down  stream. 
This  boom  is  called  “  thittagah,  ”  which  means  literally 
“  a  door  for  logs.”  Such  a  place  was  Kokogon,  where 
the  elephants  were  engaged  in  hauling  the  collected  tim¬ 
ber  up  a  slide  of  rollers  on  to  the  high  bank,  from  where 
it  will  presently  be  hauled  through  the  forest  by  bullock 
wagon  or  traction  engine  to  another  and  a  larger  stream, 
which  will  float  it  down  to  Rangoon. 

Apropos  of  this,  one  of  my  companions  had  a  some¬ 
what  curious  adventure  while  engaged  on  the  work  which 
I  have  been  describing.  He  was  making  his  way  down 
the  creek,  finding  such  foothold  as  he  could,  and  presently 
stood  upon  what  he  took  to  be  the  root  of  a  tree  lying  on 
the  face  of  the  steep  bank.  He  was  much  alarmed  to 
find  it  move  and  to  witness  the  erection  of  an  enormous 
neck  and  head  at  the  end  farthest  from  him.  What  he 
had  taken  for  a  twisted  tree-stem  proved  to  be  a  13-foot 
python,  and,  as  he  told  me,  lie  “  let  off  a  yell  ”  and  both 
barrels  of  the  gun  which  he  happened  to  be  carrying  as 


238  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

he  jumped  for  the  river  bed.  Luckily  the  python  was 
killed,  and  he  took  the  skin,  of  which  he  is  very  proud. 

I  have  previously  remarked  upon  my  not  having  seen 
a  snake  so  far,  but  closely  following  upon  the  above 
adventure,  one  morning  in  going  to  my  work  I  trod  upon 
a  cobra,  which  fortunately  was  more  alarmed  than  myself 
and  darted  off  at  amazing  speed  into  the  thicket ;  and  the 
same  evening  one  of  our  party  in  feeding  the  camp  fire, 
picked  up  what  he  thought  to  be  a  chip,  but  which  was 
nothing  less  than  a  Russell’s  viper,  one  of  the  most  deadly 
snakes  of  Burma.  Fortunately  he  had  “  caught  it 
right,”  and  dropped  it  before  any  harm  was  done. 

With  regard  to  snakes  generally,  I  think  it  is  un¬ 
questioned  that  the  reptile  is,  in  most  instances,  as  an¬ 
xious  to  get  out  of  the  way  as  the  human  being  to  avoid 
it.  An  exception,  however,  occurs  in  the  case  of  the 
hamadryad  or  king  cobra,  which  is  aggressive.  A  friend 
of  mine  in  the  Katlia  district  told  me  how,  when  chased 
by  one  of  them,  he,  though  an  extremely  athletic  man, 
had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  getting  away,  so  rapid  was 
its  movement,  and  it  was  only  by  throwing  down  his  gun 
and  cartridge-bag  that  lie  was  able  to  outdistance  his 
pursuer. 

It  is  interesting  to  watch  the  elephant  at  work;  their 
sagacity  is  remarkable,  and  they  hardly  seem  to  require 
the  direction  of  the  “  oozis  ”  who  sit  astride  their  necks, 
encouraging  them  with  cries  of  “  kalai  ”  (brother),  or 
repressing  the  refractory  ones  with  their  “  choons.”1 
In  order  to  assist  his  driver  to  mount,  an  elephant  will 
either  kneel,  or  by  bending  the  fore-leg,  upon  which  the 
“  oozi  ”  steps,  lift  him  until  his  seat  is  reached.  The 
prettiest  method,  perhaps,  is  when  the  elephant,  bending 
the  head,  curls  up  his  trunk,  which,  together  with  his 
broad  forehead,  forms  a  simple  and  easy  staircase  for  its 
driver.  Approaching  a  log  the  elephant  will  look  at  it 
and  touch  it  deprecatingly  with  his  trunk,  and  having 
mentally  decided  as  to  its  probable  weight,  will  either 
lift  it  as  directed,  or  should  he  consider  it  too  heavy,  will 

1  Driving  hooks. 


ELEPHANTS  PILING  TEAK 
“We  useter  watch  the  steamers  and 
the  hathis  pilin’  teak.’5 

Elephants  a-pilin’  teak 
In  the  sludgy,  squdgy  creek, 

Where  the  silence  ’ung  that  ’eavy 
you  was  ’arf  afraid  to  speak, 

On  the  road  to  Mandalay. 


— Rudyard  Kipling. 


JUNGLE  LIFE  IN  BUKMA 


241 


positively  decline  to  touch  it  unassisted.  Very  clever, 
too,  is  the  manner  in  which  they  avoid  obstacles,  stepping 
over  logs,  chains,  etc.,  as  they  go  about  their  work.  In 
lifting  timber,  both  trunk  and  tusks  are  used,  and  it  is 
extraordinary  how  they  marshal  and  sort  the  logs,  laying 
them  neatly  and  evenly  in  their  places,  shoving  with  the 
head  and  rolling  them  over  until  arranged  to  their  satis¬ 
faction;  or,  when  loading  the  trolleys,  how  carefully  the 
log  is  laid  down,  and  then  pushed  forwards  or  backwards 
until  a  perfect  balance  is  obtained. 

Highly  intelligent  animals,  they  are  apparently  docile 
also,  except  when  the  male  goes  “  must,”  or  in  the  case 
of  a  female  with  a  calf.  Then  either  is  a  very  uncertain 
quantity;  the  calves  also  are  most  pugnacious,  even 
vicious,  and  as  even  a  “  youngster  ”  will  weigh  close  upon 
half  a  ton,  and  is  quite  able  to  squash  the  life  out  of  any 
one,  they  are  not  to  be  trifled  with  by  any  means. 

I  was  one  day  taking  a  photograph  of  the  elephants  at 
work  at  the  top  of  the  slide  by  which  the  logs  were  hauled 
from  the  river  to  the  top  of  the  bank.  Wishing  to  get  a 
good  one,  I  was  focussing  carefully  on  the  screen,  my 
head  being  under  the  cloth ;  suddenly  I  noticed  one  of  the 
elephants  becoming  larger,  very  rapidly,  and  at  the  same 
time  heard  shouts  of  “  Look  out!  ”  Without  waiting  to 
see  what  was  going  on,  however,  I  snatched  up  my  camera 
and  dropped  over  the  steep  bank  into  the  river  bed  below. 
I  then  discovered  that  I  had  been  charged  by  one  of  these 
fond  mothers,  and  had  narrowly  escaped  a  serious 
danger.  The  elephant  in  question,  I  afterwards  learnt, 
had  previously  killed  two  of  her  “  oozis,”  and  was  alto¬ 
gether  a  lady  to  be  avoided. 

Generally  speaking,  a  great  attachment  springs  up  be¬ 
tween  the  elephant  and  his  driver,  who  is  often  devoted 
to  his  charge.  I  heard  of  a  case  where  an  employer,  on 
transferring  his  elephants  to  a  new  district,  asked  one  of 
the  drivers  to  leave  his  village  and  come  also.  “  Of 
course,”  he  replied,  “  how  can  I  leave  my  elephant;  he 
is  my  father,  with  whom  I  have  worked  thirteen  years.” 

On  the  other  hand,  elephants  have  a  strong  objection 


242  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

to  ponies  and  Europeans,  especially  when  approached 
from  behind.  Several  times  in  moving  through  the  forest 
I  came  upon  our  ‘  ‘  travelers  ’ ’  unexpectedly,  and  in  every 
case  the  elephant,  striking  his  trunk  upon  the  ground,  and 
giving  a  shrill  metallic  cry,  quite  different  from  liis  ordi¬ 
nary  trumpeting,  would  turn  round  to  attack.  My  pony, 
however,  was  always  ready,  and  quickly  carried  me  out 
of  sight  among  the  trees. 

I  was  rather  surprised  to  learn  how  tender  are  ele¬ 
phant’s  hacks,  and  the  greatest  care  must  be  exercised 
in  loading  up  a  4 ‘  traveler  ”  to  ensure  a  perfect  balance 
of  the  load,  or  a  sore  back  is  sure  to  result.  Curiously 
enough  also,  they  suffer  a  good  deal  from  the  bites  of 
mosquitoes  and  other  stinging  insects,  and  I  have,  on 
several  occasions,  seen  the  blood  trickling  down  their  cor¬ 
rugated  and  seemingly  impenetrable  hides  from  this 
cause. 


AT  HOME  IN  FIJI. 

BY 

C.  F.  Gordon  Cumming. 

Constance  Frederick  Gordon  Cumming  was  born  in  1837.  She 
was  of  an  ancient  Scottish  family,  a  woman  of  rare  talent  and  scien¬ 
tific  attainment  and  was  a  friend  of  Hugh  Miller,  Agassiz,  Sir  R. 
Murchison,  etc.  She  traveled  extensively  in  the  Pacific  Islands,  spent 
two  years  in  Ceylon,  two  in  Fiji  and  visited  Tahiti,  China,  Japan, 
California,  Hawaii,  New  Zealand,  and  New  South  Wales.  She  pub¬ 
lished  many  books  of  her  experiences  in  these  places  and  her  descrip¬ 
tions  are  always  vivid,  clear,  and  interesting. 

JUST  below  us  lies  the  harbor  (of  Levuka)  like  a  calm 
sea-lake,  on  which  ride  vessels  of  all  sizes :  trading 
schooners  and  brigs,  which  carry  the  produce  of  the 
isles  to  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  Larger  vessels 
trade  with  Germany.  Then  there  is  an  occasional  man- 
of-war  or  merchant  steamer,  and  always  native  canoes 
passing  to  and  fro,  with  great  three-cornered  yellow  mat 
sails,  and  brown  men,  who  often  sing  quaint  mekes  as 

;  From  “At  Home  in  Fiji.”  London. 


AT  HOME  IN  FIJI. 


243 


they  approach  the  town,  with  an  odd  sort  of  accompani¬ 
ment  on  their  lali,  or  wooden  drum.  The  chiefs’  canoes 
carry  a  flag,  and  sometimes  a  fringe  of  streamers  of 
native  cloth  floating  from  the  sail;  and  the  canoe  itself 
is  adorned  at  both  ends  with  glistening  white  shells  like 
poached  eggs  ( Cyprea  oviformis).  Sometimes  several 
canoes  pass  us  racing,  or  they  meet,  and  their  sails  at 
different  angles  form  pretty  groups.  How  striking  a 
scene  it  must  have  been,  when,  in  the  old  days,  the  chiefs 
sailed  forth  to  war  at  the  head  of  a  large  fleet  of  these ! 
On  one  such  occasion,  when  Thakombau  went  to  attack 
Verata,  he  mustered  a  hundred  and  twenty-nine  canoes. 
Only  think  how  bravely  they  must  have  flown  before  the 
breeze,  with  the  golden  sunlight  on  the  yellow  sails! 
These  canoes  are  balanced  by  large  outriggers  —  that  is, 
a  beam  of  wood,  or  piece  of  cocoa-palm  stem,  floating 
alongside,  and  attached  to  the  canoe  by  bamboos.  They 
are  most  picturesque,  and  the  great  mat  sails,  seen 
against  the  intense  blue  of  the  water,  are  a  valuable  addi¬ 
tion  to  the  scene.  Indeed  the  eye  that  loves  exquisite 
color  can  never  weary  here. 

The  rich  blue  of  the  harbor  is  separated  from  the  pur¬ 
plish  indigo  of  the  great  ocean  by  a  submarine  rainbow 
of  indescribable  loveliness.  This  is  caused  by  the  coral- 
reef,  which  produces  a  gleaming  ray  as  if  from  a  hidden 
prism.  The  patches  of  coral,  sea-weed,  and  sometimes 
white  sand,  lying  at  irregular  depths,  beneath  a  shallow 
covering  of  the  most  crystalline  emerald-green  water, 
produce  every  shade  of  aqua  marine,  mauve,  sienna,  and 
orange,  all  marvelously  blended.  The  shades  are  con¬ 
tinually  varying  with  the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide,  which 
at  high  water  covers  the  reef  to  the  depth  of  several  feet, 
while  at  low  tide  patches  here  and  there  stand  high  and 
dry,  or  are  covered  by  only  a  few  inches  of  water ;  treach¬ 
erous  ground,  however,  on  which  to  land,  as  the  sharp 
coral  spikes  break  under  the  feet,  cutting  the  thickest 
leather,  and  perhaps  landing  you  in  a  hole  several  feet  in 
depth,  with  still  sharper  coral  down  below.  The  highest 
edge  of  the  reef  lies  towards  the  ocean,  and  a  line  of 


244 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


dazzling  white  surf  marks  where  the  great  green  breakers 
wage  their  ceaseless  warfare  on  the  barrier ;  but  the  pas¬ 
sage  through  the  reef  is  plainly  marked  by  a  break  in  the 
white  line,  and  a  broad  roadway  of  deep  blue  connecting 
the  inner  waters  with  the  great  deep;  and  this,  again, 
passes  in  gradual  gradations  of  color,  from  the  intense 
blue  of  the  harbor  to  the  glittering  green  of  the  shallow 
water  on  the  inner  side  of  the  reef.  Altogether  it  is  most 
fascinating.  The  scene  is  loveliest  at  noon,  when  the 
sun  is  right  overhead,  and  lights  up  the  colors  beneath 
the  water  in  the  coral  caves.  Also  you  must  be  some 
way  up  the  hill  to  get  a  good  view  of  the  reef.  Of  the 
radiant  opal  tints  which  overspread  sea,  isles,  and  sky, 
at  the  outgoings  of  morning  and  evening,  I  need  not  tell 
you ;  our  own  northern  shores  supply  sunrise  and  sunset 
colors  more  vivid  than  we  often  see  in  the  tropics. 

This  afternoon  has  been- one  of  unmitigated  enjoyment 
spent  on  the  reef,  where  for  so  many  days  I  have 
enviously  watched  the  Fijian  girls  disporting  themselves 
at  low  tide,  and  bringing  back  baskets  full  of  all  sorts  of 
curious  fish,  many  of  them  literally  rainbow-colored. 
Some  are  most  gorgeous,  and  are  called  parrot-fish. 
They  have  large  bony  beaks,  rather  than  ordinary  mouths, 
to  enable  them  to  feed  on  the  coral,  which  at  certain  sea¬ 
sons  are  said  to  be  11  in  flower,  ’  ’  and  very  unwholesome ; 
so  we  always  eat  these  radiant  fish  with  some  qualms, 
and  not  without  good  reason,  for  some  people  have  had 
the  ill-luck  to  get  poisoned,  and  have  suffered  severely  in 
consequence. 

Our  great  authority  on  all  questions  of  natural  history  is 
Mr.  Layard  (brother  of  ‘ 1  Nineveh  ’  ’  Layard) ,  who,  before 
annexation,  held  the  office  of  British  Consul  in  this  place. 
He  and  his  son  have  a  special  talent  for  capturing  strange 
monsters  of  the  deep,  and  I  never  call  on  Mrs.  Layard 
without  her  showing  me  some  new  object  of  interest. 
They  live  in  a  large  old  wooden  house,  built  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  water ;  in  fact,  the  sea  washes  up  underneath 
the  veranda,  which  opens  on  a  long  wooden  pier  in  the 
last  stages  of  decay.  I  should  think  the  position  most 


AT  HOME  IN  FIJI. 


245 


unsafe,  in  view  of  possible  tidal  waves,  especially  as  a 
small  mountain  stream  (which  occasionally  becomes  a 
torrent)  washes  one  side  of  the  house  —  so  that  from  one 
window  the  inmates  can  have  fresh  water  fishing,  and 
from  the  other  salt.  That  old  pier  has  been  a  source  of 
infinite  pleasure  to  many.  It  enables  Mrs.  Layard  to 
have  a  little  fresh  air,  and  a  small  walk,  without  ventur¬ 
ing  among  the  broken  bottles  and  mud  which  form  the 
beach;  and  her  husband  and  son  thence  capture  many 
strange  creatures  when  they  have  not  time  to  row  off  to 
the  reef,  which  is,  of  course,  the  very  ideal  of  a  natural¬ 
ist’s  happy  hunting-grounds,  and  there  they  took  me  this 
afternoon.  You  really  cannot  imagine  anything  more 
lovely  than  it  was.  The  first  essential  is  to  go  in  a  boat 
which  draws  very  little  water,  and  which  has  no  new  paint 
to  be  considered.  Then  when  the  tide  is  low,  and  the 
sea  without  a  ripple,  you  float  idly  over  the  coral-beds, 
suffering  your  boat  to  lie  at  rest  or  drift  with  the  current, 
as  a  stroke  of  the  oars  would  disturb  the  clear  surface 
of  the  water,  beneath  which  lie  such  inexhaustible  stores 
of  loveliness.  Every  sort  and  kind  of  coral  grow  to¬ 
gether  there,  from  the  outstretched  branches,  which  look 
]ike  garden  shrubs,  to  the  great  tables  of  solid  coral,  on 
which  lie  strewn  shells  and  sponges,  and  heaps  of  brain 
and  mushroom  corals. 

These  living  shrubs  assume  every  shade  of  color :  some 
are  delicate  pink  or  blue;  others  of  a  brilliant  mauve; 
some  pale  primrose.  But  vain  is  the  attempt  to  carry 
home  these  beautiful  flowers  of  the  sea;  their  color  is 
their  life.  It  is,  in  fact,  simply  a  gelatinous  slime,  which 
drips  away,  as  the  living  creatures  melt  away  and  die, 
when  exposed  to  the  upper  air.  So  the  corals  we  know 
in  England  are  merely  skeletons,  and  very  poor  substi¬ 
tutes  for  the  lovely  objects  we  see  and  covet  in  their 
native  condition. 

Besides,  like  everything  in  that  submarine  garden, 
much  of  its  charm  is  derived  from  the  medium  through 
which  we  behold  it  —  the  clear  translucent  water,  which 
spreads  a  glamor  of  enchantment  over  objects  already 

Vol.  IV  — 15 


246  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

beautiful,  glorifying  tlie  scarlet  coralines  and  tlie  waving 
branches  of  green  and  brown  wreed,  wherein  play  ex¬ 
quisite  fish  of  all  vivid  hues  and  sizes,  from  the  tiniest 
gem-like  atoms  which  flash  in  the  light  like  sapphires 
and  rubies,  to  the  great  big-headed  parrot-fisli,  which  has 
strong  white  teeth  specially  adapted  for  crunching  the 
coral,  and  thence  extracting  the  insects  on  which  he  feeds. 

There  are  great  red  fish,  and  purple-green  fish,  and 
some  of  bright  gold,  with  bars  or  spots  of  black;  but  love¬ 
liest  of  all  are  the  shoals  of  minute  fish,  some  of  the  most 
vivid  green,  others  of  a  blue  that  is  quite  dazzling.  Some 
have  markings  so  brilliant  that  I  can  only  compare  them 
to  peacocks’  feathers.  These  all  congregate  in  families, 
and  a  happy  life  they  surely  must  have.  Some  of  the 
loveliest  of  these  are  so  tiny  that  you  can  keep  a  dozen 
in  a  tumbler;  others  are  about  the  length  of  your  finger. 
Only  think  what  a  prize  they  would  be  if  we  could  convey 
them  safely  to  the  great  aquariums  at  home!  Besides 
these  myriads  of  minute  fish,  there  are  all  manner  of  living 
creatures  which  peep  out  from  their  homes  beneath  the 
ledges  and  crevices  of  the  coral  —  vigilant  crabs  of  all 
sizes  and  colors,  and  sea-anemones  in  endless  variety,  and 
wonderful  specimens  of,  Echini. 

Picture  to  yourself  first  cousins  of  the  fragile  sea-eggs 
which  used  to  rejoice  our  childhood,  and  make  us  marvel 
how  they  ever  came  ashore  unbroken.  These  Fijian  re¬ 
lations  are  armed  with  spikes  like  slate-pencils,  nearly 
as  thick  as  your  middle  finger,  and  a  good  deal  longer.  I 
think  Mr.  Layard  said  their  name  is  Acrocladia.  To-day 
we  captured  a  most  extraordinary  creature,  a  starfish, 
which  seemed  as  if  it  must  be  nearly  related  to  the  sea- 
urchin,  for  its  fifteen  arms  were  each  covered  with  grey 
and  orange  spines,  very  sharp,  precisely  like  those  of  the 
echinus,  while  the  under  side  was  a  mass  of  pale-yellow 
fleshy  feelers,  like  those  of  a  sea-anemone,  with  a  sucker 
at  the  end  of  each.  It  was  a  strange  and  most  interesting 
creature  when  we  first  beheld  it,  but  looked  very  unhappy 
when  it  found  itself  in  a  bucket ;  and  when  reduced  to  4  ‘  a 
specimen,”  it  will  be  a  poor  ugly  object.1 

1  Acantliaster  Solaris. 


FIJI  NATIVE  VILLAGE 

The  Fiji  Archipelago  consists  cf  about  250  islands,  of 
which  80  are  inhabited.  The  native  character  is  a  series  of 
curious  contrasts.  Highly  intelligent,  with  a  minute  and  elab¬ 
orate  social  code,  yet  they  were  cannibals  full  of  suspicion 
and  treachery,  but  in  many  ways  hospitable,  generous  and 
polite  They  were  sensitive,  proud,  vindictive  and  boastful, 
and  very  cleanly  in  their  houses  and  their  cookery.  Civiliza¬ 
tion  has  done  much  to  efface  the  more  unpleasant  phases 
of  their  character. 


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249 


We  saw  a  great  number  of  large  star-fish,  of  the  deep¬ 
est  Albert  bine,  and  innumerable  other  beautiful  things, 
which  gained  greatly  in  interest  from  being  shown  to  me 
by  one  so  familiar  with  them  all  as  is  Mr.  Layard.  How 
you  would  delight  in  such  an  afternoon  as  this  has  been, 
and  how  the  boys  would  revel  in  it !  It  is  not  altogether 
pleasant,  however,  to  try  walking  on  the  reef,  and  you 
generally  have  to  get  natives  to  dive  for  anything\partic- 
ularly  good.  They  never  seem  afraid  of  the  many  sharp 
teeth  and  stinging  creatures  which  may  dart  out  from 
the  coral;  and  not  being  troubled  by  over-much  raiment, 
they  dive  in  and  out  like  fishes  (though,  as  a  general  rule, 
they  do  dislike  wetting  their  hair).  To  them  the  reef  is 
a  source  of  endless  amusement  and  profit,  and  at  low  tide 
there  are  generally  some  canoes  lying  in  the  shallow 
water;  while  the  girls  and  young  men  are  hunting  for 
the  spoils  of  the  sea,  which  they  carry  in  three-cornered 
baskets,  slung  from  the  waist.  Of  course  they  do  not  care 
to  spoil  their  simple  raiment  with  salt  water,  so  a  consid¬ 
erable  portion  of  their  dress  on  these  occasions  consists 
of  deep  fringes  and  garlands  of  many-coloured  leaves, 
which  are  a  most  becoming  drapery,  with  their  rich  brown 
skin  and  tawny  head. 

The  existence  of  these  barrier-reefs  is  an  unspeakable 
benefit  to  the  isles,  supplying  them  with  natural  break¬ 
waters  and  harbours,  surrounding  each  with  a  lagoon  of 
calm,  shallow  water,  on  which  the  smallest  boats  can  ply 
as  safely  as  on  an  inland  lake,  and  within  shelter  of 
which  they  can,  in  most  places,  pass  from  one  isle  to 
another.  There  is  invariably  a  passage  through  the  reef 
opposite  the  mouth  of  any  river,  as  the  coral  insect  can¬ 
not  live  within  the  influence  of  fresh  water.  Thus  an 
entrance  is  secured  to  the  haven  of  rest,  and  a  very  strait 
and  narrow  way  it  often  is,  and  one  which  calls  for  careful 
steering,  when  the  angry  breakers  are  dashing  in  mad 
fury  on  the  reef  on  either  side  —  great  rolling  waves 
curling  upward  in  a  succession  of  mighty  walls  of  green 
water,  and  falling  in  such  a  surging  cataract  of  foam  as 


250  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

would  make  short  work  of  the  luckless  canoe  that  should 
drift  within  their  reach.  Once  inside  the  reef  all  is 
secure,  save  when  some  unusual  storm  troubles  even  these 
calm  waters,  as  it  might  rutile  the  surface  of  any  lake. 

It  is  hard  to  realise  that  these  mighty  sea-walls  are 
indeed  the  work  of  microscopic  insects  —  star-like  crea¬ 
tures,  invisible  to  the  naked  eye;  but  so  it  is.  It  is  said 
they  cannot  live  at  a  greater  depth  than  thirty  fathoms, 
yet  the  height  of  the  coral-wall  is  in  many  cases  double 
or  treble  this  measurement,  and  in  some  cases  a  sheer 
descent  of  two  hundred  fathoms  has  been  found.  The 
inference  is,  that  many  of  these  isles,  as  well  as  the  ocean- 
bed  from  which  the  coral  rises,  are  gradually  subsiding, 
and  the  insects  are  continually  working  upwards.  In 
some  cases  the  island  has  altogether  disappeared,  and 
there  remains  only  a  circular  or  crescent  shaped  reef, 
perhaps  fringed  with  cocoa-palms,  encircling  a  calm 
lagoon  of  clear  green  water,  the  sea  all  round  being  of  the 
deepest  blue.  These  are  called  atolls ,  and  are  sometimes 
many  miles  in  circumference.  Some  scarcely  rise  above 
the  water-level,  and  only  a  ring  of  white  coral  sand 
betrays  their  existence. 

The  coral-reef  gives  us  various  hints  of  the  rise  and 
fall  in  the  level  of  the  ocean-bed,  for  while  some  islands 
have  wholly  disappeared,  others  are  even  now  emerging 
from  the  waters.  In  some  groups  coral-cliffs  have  been 
found  forty  feet  above  the  water-level  —  in  other  words, 
above  the  height  where  the  insect  could  live,  thus  showing 
clearly  that  these  rocks  have  been  gradually  uplieaved. 
But  in  the  Fijian  group  there  are  few  islands  which  are 
not  almost  encircled  by  a  barrier-reef  of  considerable 
depth,  which  would  seem  to  indicate  that  they  are  actually 
subsiding.  However,  the  process  is  likely  to  be  a  slow 
one,  and  a  matter  of  no  great  moment  to  the  present 
generation,  or  their  successors  for  many  years  to  come. 

In  one  respect  we  are  greatly  disappointed  in  this 
place — there  are  scarcely  any  flowers .  This  strikes  us 
all  the  more,  as  we  have  come  here  direct  from  Australia, 


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251 


where  we  left  the  whole  country  literally  aflame  with 
blossom.  You  cannot  fancy  anything  more  lovely.  And 
here  in  the  tropics,  where  people  always  vainly  imagine 
that  flowers  are  so  abundant,  we  have  fewer  than  in  anv 
place  I  have  yet  been.  Scarcely  any  house  has  even  a 
flower  bed  round  the  windows ;  and  the  very  best  garden 
in  the  place  would,  except  for  the  beauty  of  its  crotons 
and  other  shrubs,  scarcely  be  dignified  with  the  name 
elsewhere;  and  yet  infinite  care  is  expended  on  it,  and  a 
handful  of  roses  or  other  blossoms  of  any  sort  is  the 
greatest  boon  its  owner  can  bestow  on  us.  As  to  wild 
flowers,  I  have  walked  day  after  day  till  I  was  weary, 
without  finding  as  many  flowers  as  would  fill  a  small  vase. 

The  ferns,  however,  are  exceedingly  lovely.  Innum¬ 
erable  species  grow  in  richest  profusion  in  every  damp 
ravine,  and  great  tufts  of  birds ’-nest  and  other  ferns  cling 
to  the  mossy  boughs  of  the  gray  old  trees.  Every  here 
and  there  you  come  on  a  rocky  stream  or  shady  pool 
round  which  they  cluster  in  such  luxuriance  and  variety, 
that  it  makes  you  long  to  transport  the  whole  fairy-like 
dell  to  some  place  where  all  fern  lovers  might  revel  in 
its  beauty.  An  this  is  only  the  undergrowth ;  for  the  cool 
shade  overhead  is  produced  by  the  interwoven  fronds  of 
great  tree-ferns  —  their  exquisite  crown  of  green  sup¬ 
ported  by  a  slender  stem  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high, 
up  which  twine  delicate  creepers  of  all  sorts,  which  steal 
in  and  out  among  the  great  fronds,  and  so  weave  a  canopy 
of  exquisite  beauty.  Loveliest  of  all  are  the  delicate 
climbing  ferns,  the  tender  leaves  of  which  —  some  richly 
f  ringed  with  seed  —  hang  mid-air  on  long  hair-like  trails, 
or  else,  drooping  in  festoons,  climb  from  tree  to  tree, 
forming  a  perfect  network  of  loveliness.  It  is  a  most 
fairy-like  foliage,  and  the  people  show  their  reverence  for 
its  beauty  by  calling  it  the  W a  Kolo,  or  God’s  fern. 

I  ought  to  mention  that  though  there  are  no  flowers 
within  reach,  there  are  several  flowering  trees  with  unat¬ 
tainable,  and,  happily,  not  very  tempting  blossoms.  They 
are  all  alike  remarkable  for  having  a  most  insignificant 
calyx,  and  being  almost  entirely  composed  of  a  great 


252  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

bunch  of  silky  stamens  which  fall  in  showers  on  the 
ground  below.  The  most  attractive  of  these  is  the 
kaveeka,  or  Malay  apple,  which  bears  tufts  of  crimson 
blossom  especially  attractive  to  certain  lovely  scarlet  and 
green  parrots  with  purple  heads,  and  which  in  due  season 
bears  a  very  juicy  though  insipid  crimson  or  white  fruit. 
These  parrots  are  few  and  far  between;  and  I  miss  the 
flocks  of  bright  wings  which  so  delighted  me  in  my 
glimpse  of  the  Australian  bush.  .  .  . 


CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  ARCTIC  REGIONS. 

BY 

Elisha  Kent  Kane,  U.  S.  N. 

This  famous  American  explorer  was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1820, 
and  died  in  Havana  in  1857.  He  was  educated  as  a  physician,  was 
wounded  in  the  Mexican  War,  and  sailed  in  two  expeditions  sent  by 
Henry  Grinnell  in  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin.  The  story  of  the 
suffering’s  and  hardships  of  himself  and  his  companions  is  full  of 
instances  of  courage  and  resourcefulness,  and  if  they  did  not  succeed 
in  what  they  set  out  to  do,  they  have  left  to  the  world  an  imperishable 
record  of  perseverance  and  devotion  to  duty. 

&  ^  1  X  MEMBER,  25,  Christmas,  Monday. —  All 
1  together  again,  the  returned  and  the  stead- 
— S  fast,  we  sat  down  to  our  Christmas  dinner. 

There  was  more  love  than  with  the  stalled  ox  of  former 
times;  but  of  herbs  none.  We  forgot  our  discomforts  in 
the  blessings  which  adhered  to  us  still;  and  when  we 
thought  of  the  long  road  ahead  of  us,  we  thought  of  it 
hopefully.  I  pledged  myself  to  give  them  their  next 
Christmas  with  their  homes ;  and  each  of  us  drank  his 
‘  absent  friends  ?  with  ferocious  zest  over  one-eighteenth 
part  of  a  bottle  of  sillery  —  the  last  of  its  hamper,  and, 
alas !  no  longer  mousseux . 

But  if  this  solitary  relic  of  festival  days  had  lost 

From  “  Arctic  Explorations,  the  Second  Grinnell  Expedition  in 
Search  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  1835-1855.”  Philadelphia. 


NILS  ADOLPH  ERIK  NORDENSKJOLD 

AFTER  THE  PAINTING  BY  ROSEN 

This  famous  Swedish  explorer  was  the  first  to  sail  around 
the  north  coast  of  Asia,  returning  by  the  way  of  Behring  Strait. 
He  has  explored  parts  of  Spitzbergen  and  Greenland.  He  was 
born  in  1832.  His  name  is  pronounced  nor-den-shult. 


SKrf 

A/0<\A/0<NA/Or\  Krie\  l nr\  A/0 


/6  do 


CHRISTMAS  IX  THE  ARCTIC  REGIONS 


255 


its  sparkle,  we  had  not.  We  passed  around  merrily  our 
turkeys  roast  and  boiled,  roast-betef,  onions,  potatoes 
and  cucumbers,  watermelons,  and  God  knows  wliat  other 
cravings  of  the  scurvy-sickened  palate,  with  entire  exclu¬ 
sion  of  the  fact  that  each  one  of  these  was  variously 
represented  by  pork  and  beans.  Lord  Peter  himself  was 
not  more  cordial  in  his  dispensation  of  plum  pudding, 
mutton,  and  custard  to  his  unbelieving  brothers. 

McGary,  of  course,  told  us  his  story:  we  hear  it 
every  day,  and  laugh  at  it  almost  as  heartily  as  he  does 
himself.  Caesar  Johnson  is  the  guest  of  ‘  Ole  Ben,’ 
colored  gentlemen  both,  who  do  occasional  whitewashing. 
The  worthies  have  dined  standby  on  the  dish  of  beans, 
browned  and  relished  by  its  surmounting  cube  of  pork. 
A  hospitable  pause,  and,  with  a  complacent  wave  of  the 
hand,  Ole  Ben  addresses  the  ladv  hostess:  4  Ole  woman! 
bring  on  de  resarve.’  ‘  Ha ’n’t  got  no  resarve.’  ‘  Well, 
den’ — with  a  placid  smile  —  ‘  bring  on  de  beans!’ 

So  much  for  the  Merrie  Christmas.  What  portion 
of  its  mirth  was  genuine  with  the  rest  I  cannot  tell,  for 
we  are  practised  actors  some  of  us;  but  there  was  no 
heart  in  my  share  of  it.  My  thoughts  were  with  those 
far  off,  who  are  thinking,  I  know,  of  me.  I  could  bear 
my  own  troubles  as  I  do  my  eider-down  coverlet;  for  I 
can  see  myself  as  I  am,  and  feel  sustained  by  the  knowl¬ 
edge  that  I  have  fought  my  battle  well.  But  there  is  no 
one  to  tell  of  this  at  the  home  table.  Pertinacity,  unwise 
daring,  calamity  —  any  of  these  may  come  up  unbidden, 
as  my  name  circles  round,  to  explain  why  I  am  still 
away. 

For  some  davs  before  Christmas  I  had  been  meditating 
a  sledge-journey  to  our  Esquimaux  neighbors.  The  con¬ 
dition  of  the  little  party  under  my  charge  left  me  no 
*  alternative,  uncomfortable  and  hazardous  as  I  knew  that 
it  must  be.  I  failed  in  the  first  effort;  but  there  were 
incidents  connected  with  it  which  may  deserve  a  place 
here.  I  recur  to  my  journal  for  a  succinct  record  of  my 
motives  in  setting  out: 

“  December  26,  Tuesday. —  The  moon  is  nearly  above 
the  cliffs;  the  thermometer  — 57°  to  — 45°,  the  mean  of 


256  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

the  past  four  days.  In  the  midst  of  this  cheering  con¬ 
junction,  I  have  ahead  of  me  a  journey  of  a  hundred 
miles;  to  say  nothing  of  the  return.  Worse  than  this,  I 
have  no  landmarks  to  guide  me,  and  must  be  my  own 
pioneer. 

“  But  there  is  a  duty  in  the  case.  McGary  and  Brooks 
are  sinking,  and  that  rapidly.  Walrus-beef  alone  can 
sustain  them,  and  it  is  to  be  got  from  the  natives  and 
nowhere  else.  It  is  a  merciful  change  of  conditions  that 
I  am  the  strongest  now  of  the  whole  party,  as  last  winter 
I  was  the  weakest.  The  duty  of  collecting  food  is  on  me. 
I  shall  go  first  to  the  lower  Bay  Esquimaux,  and  thence,  if 
the  hunt  has  failed  there,  to  Cape  Bobertson. 

“My  misgivings  are  mostly  on  account  of  the  dogs; 
for  it  is  a  rugged,  liummocked  drive  of  twenty-two  hours, 
even  with  strong  teams  and  Esquimaux  drivers.  We 
have  been  feeding  them  on  salt  meat,  for  we  have  had 
nothing  else  to  give  them;  and  they  are  out  of  health; 
and  there  are  hardly  enough  of  them  at  best  to  carry 
our  lightest  load.  If  one  of  these  tetanoids  should  attack 
them  on  the  road,  it  may  be  game  up  for  all  of  us. 

“  But  it  is  to  be  tried  at  last:  Petersen  will  go  with 
me,  and  we  will  club  our  wits.  I  do  not  fear  the  cold; 
we  are  impregnable  in  our  furs  while  under  exercise, 
though  if  we  should  be  forced  to  walk,  and  give  out,  it 
might  be  a  different  matter.  We  shall  have,  I  imagine, 
a  temperature  not  much  above  — 54°,  and  I  do  not  see 
how  we  are  to  carry  heating  apparatus.  We  have  load 
enough  without  it.  Our  only  diet  will  be  a  stock  of 
meat-biscuit,  to  which  I  shall  add  for  myself  —  Petersen’s 
taste  is  less  educated  —  a  few  rats,  chopped  up  and  frozen 
into  the  tallow-balls. 

“December  28,  Thursday. —  I  have  fed  the  dogs  the 
last  two  days  on  their  dead  brethren.  Spite  of  all 
proverbs,  dog  ivill  eat  dog ,  if  properly  cooked.  I  have 
been  saving  up  some  who  died  of  fits,  intending  to  use 
their  skins,  and  these  have  come  in  very  opportunely. 
I  boil  them  into  a  sort  of  bloody  soup,  and  deal  them 
out  twice  a  day  in  chunks  and  solid  jelly;  for  of  course 
they  are  frozen  like  quartz  rock.  These  salt  meats  are 


CHRISTMAS  IN  THE  ARCTIC  REGIONS  257 

absolutely  poisonous  to  the  Northern  Esquimaux  dog. 
We  have  now  lost  fifty  odd,  and  one  died  yesterday  in 
the  very  act  of  eating  his  reformed  diet. 

“  The  moon  to-morrow  will  be  for  twelve  hours  above 
the  horizon,  and  so  nearly  circumpolar  afterward  as  to 
justify  me  in  the  attempt  to  reach  the  Esquimaux  hunt¬ 
ing-ground  about  Cape  Alexander.  Every  thing  is  ready ; 
and,  God  willing,  I  start  to-morrow,  and  pass  the  four- 
hours  ’  dog-lialt  in  the  untenanted  hut  of  Anoatok.  Then 
we  have,  as  it  may  be,  a  fifteen,  eighteen,  or  twenty  hours  ’ 
march,  run  and  drive,  before  we  reach  a  shelter  among 
the  heathen  of  the  Bay. 

“  January  2,  Tuesday. —  The  dogs  began  to  show  signs 
of  that  accursed  tetanoid  spasm  of  theirs  before  we 
passed  Ten-mile  Ravine.  When  we  reached  Basalt  Camp, 
six  out  of  eight  were  nearly  useless.  Our  thermometer 
was  at  — 44°,  and  the  wind  was  blowing  sharply  out  of 
the  gorge  from  the  glacier.  Petersen  wanted  to  return, 
but  was  persuaded  by  me  to  walk  on  to  the  huts  at 
Anoatok,  in  the  hope  that  a  halt  might  restore  the  animals. 
Yv7e  reached  them  after  a  thirty  miles  ’  march. 

“  The  sinuosities  of  this  bay  gave  fearful  travel:  the 
broken  ice  clung  to  the  rocks ;  and  we  could  only  advance 
by  climbing  up  the  ice-foot  and  down  again  upon  the  floe, 
as  one  or  the  other  gave  us  the  chance  of  passing.  It 
was  eleven  hours  and  over  before  we  were  at  the  huts, 
having  made  by  sledge  and  foot-tramp  forty-five  miles. 
We  took  to  the  best  hut,  filled  in  its  broken  front  with 
snow,  housed  our  dogs,  and  crawled  in  among  them. 

“  It  was  too  cold  to  sleep.  Next  morning  we  broke 
down  our  door  and  tried  the  dogs  again :  they  could 
hardly  stand.  A  gale  now  set  in  from  the  southwest, 
obscuring  the  moon  and  blowing  very  hard.  T7e  were 
forced  back  into  the  hut ;  but,  after  corking  up  all  open¬ 
ings  with  snow  and  making  a  fire  with  our  Esquimaux 
lamp,  we  got  up  the  temperature  to  30°  below  zero,  cooked 
coffee,  and  fed  the  dogs  freely.  This  done,  both  Petersen 
and  myself,  our  clothing  frozen  stiff,  fell  asleep  through 
sheer  exhaustion;  the  wind  ouside  blowing  death  to  all 
that  might  be  exposed  to  its  influence. 


258 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


“  I  do  not  know  how  long  we  slept,  but  my  admi¬ 
rable  clothing  kept  me  up.  I  was  cold,  but  far  from 
dangerously  so;  and  was  in  a  fair  way  of  sleeping  out 
a  refreshing  night,  when  Petersen  waked  me  with  — 
‘  Captain  Kane,  the  lamp’s  out.’  I  heard  him  with  a 
thrill  of  horror.  The  gale  had  increased;  the  cold  was 
piercing,  the  darkness  intense;  our  tinder  had  become 
moist,  and  was  now  like  an  icicle.  All  our  fire-arms  were 
stacked  outside,  for  no  Arctic  man  will  trust  powder  in 
a  condensing  temperature.  Yve  did  not  dare  to  break 
down  our  doorway,  for  that  would  admit  the  gale;  our 
only  hope  of  heat  was  in  re-lighting  our  lamp.  Petersen, 
acting  by  my  directions,  made  several  attempts  to  obtain 
fire  from  a  pocket  pistol;  but  his  only  tinder  was  moss, 
and  our  heavily  stone-roofed  hut  or  cave  would  not  bear 
the  concussion  of  a  rammed  wad. 

“  By  good  luck  I  found  a  bit  of  tolerably  dry  paper 
in  my  jumper;  and,  becoming  apprehensive  that  Peter¬ 
sen  would  waste  our  few  percussion  caps  with  his  in¬ 
effectual  snappings,  I  determined  to  take  the  pistol  my¬ 
self.  It  was  so  intensely  dark  that  I  had  to  grope  for 
it,  and  in  doing  so  touched  his  hand.  At  that  instant  the 
pistol  became  distinctly  visible.  A  pale  bluish  light, 
slightly  tremulous  but  not  broken,  covered  the  metallic 
parts  of  it,  the  barrel,  lock,  and  trigger.  The  stock,  too, 
was  clearly  discernible  as  if  by  the  reflected  light,  and, 
to  the  amazement  of  both  of  us,  the  thumb  and  two  fingers 
with  which  Petersen  was  holding  it,  the  creases,  wrinkles, 
and  circuit  of  the  nails  clearly  defined  upon  the  skin. 
The  phosphorescence  was  not  unlike  the  ineffectual  fire 
of  the  glow-worm.  As  I  took  the  pistol  my  hand  became 
illuminated  also,  and  so  did  the  powder-rubbed  paper 
when  I  raised  it  against  the  muzzle. 

“  The  paper  did  not  ignite  at  the  first  trial,  but,  the 
light  from  it  continuing,  I  was  able  to  charge  the  pistol 
with  difficulty,  rolled  up  my  paper  into  a  cone,  filled  it 
with  moss  sprinkled  over  with  powder,  and  held  it  in 
my  hand  while  I  fired.  This  time  I  succeeded  in  produc¬ 
ing  flame,  and  we  saw  no  more  of  the  phosphorescence. 
I  do  not  stop  for  theory  or  argument  to  explain  this 


IN  FROBISHER  BAY 


259 


opportune  phenomenon ;  our  fur  clothing  and  the  state  of 
the  atmosphere  may  refer  it  plausibly  enough  to  our  elec¬ 
trical  condition. 

“  As  soon  as  the  wind  had  partially  subsided,  we  broke 
out  of  the  hut  and  tried  the  dogs  toward  Refuge  Inlet; 
but  the  poor  broken-down  animals  could  not  surmount 
the  hummocks;  and,  as  a  forced  necessity  to  save  their 
lives  and  ours,  we  resolved  to  push  for  the  brig  on  foot, 
driving  them  before  us.  We  made  the  walk  of  forty- 
four  miles  in  sixteen  hours,  almost  scudding  before  the 
gale,  and  arrived  safely  at  7  p.  m.  of  Sunday ;  the  tempera¬ 
ture — 40°.  ” 

With  this  fruitless  adventure  closed  the  year  1854. 


IN  FROBISHER  BAY. 

BY 

Charles  Francis  Hall.- 

This  indomitable  Arctic  explorer  was  born  in  Rochester,  N.  H.,  in 
1821,  where  he  received  a  common-school  education  and  became  a 
blacksmith  and  an  engraver.  He  fitted  out  an  expedition  which  sailed 
from  New  London  in  1860  to  search  for  vestiges  of  the  Franklin  ex¬ 
pedition  ;  lived  and  traveled  with  the  Esquimaux  and  returned  in 
1862  having  failed  in  his  purpose,  but  he  found  relics  of  Frobisher's 
expedition  of  1577-8.  He  made  a  second  journey  in  1864-69  which 
was  more  successful,  and  with  a  third  in  1871  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  farthest  point  north  then  attained  by  any  vessel.  He  afterward 
went  into  winter  quarters  in  Thank  God  Harbor,  Greenland,  and 
died  there. 

IT  WAS  on  Thursday  morning,  August  29th,  1861, 
when  we  made  preparations  to  leave  our  twelfth 
encampment  to  cross  over  to  the  westward  to  Kin- 
gaite,  along  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Frobisher.  Before  I 
proceed  with  my  narrative,  let  me  bring  forward  an 
extract  from  my  journal  written  the  evening  previous : 

“  Indeed  we  are  in  a  land  and  by  waters  of  plenty.  I 
am  constantly  overwhelmed  with  presents  of  the  very  best 

From  u  Arctic  Researches  or  Life  Among  the  Esquimaux."  New 
York. 


260 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


of  choice  eating  —  tauktoo  tongues,  toodnoo,  venison, 
ducks,  seals,  and  salmon.  Kooperneung  this  moment 
(8  p.  m.)  comes  in  saying  that  Ivoojesse  is  near  by. 
Now  for  the  trip  across  the  head  of  Frobisher  bay  to 
Kingaite  side.  *  *  *  *  *  8:30  p.  m.  Ivoojesse  has 

just  arrived ;  brought  four  tuktoo  skins,  showing  that  he 
has  killed  as  many  reindeer.  What  a  pity  that  such 
excellent  meat  as  venison  should  be  abandoned?  He  has 
seen  nothing  of  Ivoodloo,  who  still  remains  out.  The 
weather  continues  tine,  and  indications  are  every  way 
favorable  of  its  continuance. 9  ’ 

Thursday  morning  Koodloo  had  not  returned  from  his 
prolonged  tuktoo  hunt.  Arrangements  having  been 
previously  made  with  him  that,  in  case  he  returned  and 
found  us  gone,  he  should  make  his  way  over  the  land 
terminating  Frobisher  bay  to  Kingaite,  where  he  would 
find  us,  we  decided  to  strike  tupics,  pack  boats,  and  push 
on.  At  10:30  a.  m.  the  two  boats  and  two  kias  were 
under  way,  our  course  nearly  due  west,  to  a  point  of  land 
called  by  the  natives  Kou-mark-bing —  named  by  me 
Peale  Point* — that  shoots  down  abruptly  some  three 
miles  from  the  most  northerly  extreme  of  Frobisher  bay. 

We  soon  passed  an  indentation  in  the  coast  of  about 
three  miles,  at  the  head  of  which  was  a  grassy  plain,  a 
little  inclined  from  the  water’s  edge  to  the  hills  that  flank 
it,  and  extending  back  for  about  a  mile.  As  we  ap¬ 
proached  Peale  Point  I  found  it  fringed  with  many  islets, 
and,  on  arriving  there,  landed  for  making  meridional 
observations.  Peale  Point  consists  of  rugged  rocks, 
which,  though  not  of  great  height,  are  yet  considerably 
more  elevated  than  any  part  of  the  land  at  the  head 
proper  of  Frobisher  bay.  Here  we  found  on  the  sandy 
beach  large  and  remarkable  time-worn  boulders,  nearly 
white,  and  numerous  tuktoo  tracks.  I  noticed,  also,  the 
usual  signs  of  Innuit  encampments,  such  as  circles  of 
stones,  bones  of  various  animals,  etc.  On  reaching  the 
lower  group  of  islands  near  the  cape,  Ivoojesse,  who  was 
in  his  kia,  came  alongside.  I  asked  him,  “  Nou-ti-ma ?  ” 

*  Named  after  Washington  Peale,  of  New  York  City.  It  is  in  lat. 
C3°  43'  30"  N.,  long.  68°  33'  W. 


IN  FROBISHER  BAY 


261 


* — where  now  1  He  pointed  toward  a  long  island  out  of 
onr  regular  course  across  the  bay.  I  told  him  I  wished 
and  expected  to  go  direct  to  the  opposite  side  from  our 
]ast  encampment  —  to  go  to  Ag-goun,  the  west  side  of  the 
head  of  the  bay.  He  replied  that  we  could  not  get  there, 
as  the  tide  would  be  too  low  for  the  boat  before  arriv¬ 
ing.  I  thought  differently,  and  said  I  wished  to  go  there 
and  spend  a  day  or  two.  He,  however,  seemed  not  dis¬ 
posed  to  please  me,  and  remarked  that  I  could  see  the 
whole  head  of  the  bay  from  the  point  where  he  desired  to 
go.  I  answered  that  this  would  not  do ;  I  must  go  where 
1  wanted  to.  If  he  wished  to  visit  the  point  named,  well 
and  good;  he  might  go  there  and  spend  the  night,  but  on 
the  morrow  I  must  have  him  and  the  others  proceed  with 
me  in  the  direction  I  wished.  He  agreed  to  this,  though 
evidently  considering  it  useless,  so  long  as  I  could  see  the 
termination  of  the  bay. 

According  to  my  original  purpose,  I  thought  it  well  to 
attempt  to  go  back  by  the  Kingaite  side,  that  is,  opposite 
to  my  upward  route.  At  all  events,  I  would  endeavor  to 
to  get  as  far  as  the  island  Kikitukjua,  Gabriel’s  island 
of  Frobisher,  which  is  not  far  from  the  locality  where 
“  Sampson  ”  and  his  people  were  located  during  my  visit 
to  them  in  the  previous  winter.  It  is  true  that  I  had  in¬ 
tended  to  revisit  the  coast  on  that  side;  but  still  enough 
had  been  done,  with  sufficient  accuracy,  for  the  civilized 
world  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  general  situation  of 
Frobisher  Bay.  At  least,  the  opinion  that  these  waters 
are  a  strait  ought  not  anv  longer  to  be  entertained. 

At  4  p.  m.,  having  made  a  distance  of  six  miles  from 
Peale’s  point  on  a  course  S.  40°  W.  true,  we  entered  a 
channel,  with  Kingaite  on  our  right  and  Bishop’s  island1 
at  our  left.  The  coast  on  each  side  was  steep,  but  in  many 
places  covered  with  grass  and  the  usual  vegetation  to  be 
found  here  in  the  North.  The  entrance  to  this  channel 
was  about  half  a  mile  wide ;  but,  on  making  a  quarter  of 
a  mile,  it  brought  us  into  a  harbor  that  appeared  to  be  a 

1Thus  named  after  R.  M.  Bishop,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  The  centre 
of  this  island,  which  bounds  the  north  and  eastern  side  of  the  harbor 
of  the  thirteenth  encampment,  is  in  lat.  63°  39'  N.,  long.  68°  35'  W. 


262 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


fine  one,  not  less  than  two  and  a  half  miles  in  diameter. 
Thence  we  passed  on  a  course  nearly  south  to  the  west 
side  of  the  harbor,  where  we  landed,  and  there  made  our 
thirteenth  encampment  on  Kingaite. 

Throughout  this  day,  on  approaching  the  islands  or 
mainland,  I  noticed  that  the  water  seemed  very  shallow, 
and  it  was  certain  that  no  large-sized  ships  could  attempt 
to  reach  the  head  of  Frobisher  bay  with  any  degree  of 
safety. 

Before  arriving  at  the  place  of  our  encampment,  I  saw 
the  tuples  of  our  other  Innuit  friends  and  the  curling 
smoke  of  their  fires.  As  I  landed  Koodloo  greeted  us. 
He  had  just  come  in  from  his  hunt,  having  shot  and 
secured  skins  and  toodnoo  of  four  deer.  This  made 
thirteen  that  my  three  men  had  killed  within  four  days. 
On  making  up  to  our  intended  encampment,  all  hands 
commenced  unloading  the  boat,  the  females,  as  was  cus¬ 
tomary,  acting  as  pack-horses  in  conveying  everything  up 
the  steep  rocks  beyond  reach  of  the  tide;  then  they 
selected  a  convenient  spot  and  erected  the  tupics. 

A  few  moments  after  our  arrival,  with  the  1  ‘  stars  and 

j 

stripes  ”  of  my  country  in  one  hand  and  my  spyglass  in 
the  other,  I  made  my  way  to  the  crest  of  a  high  hill  in  the 
rear  of  our  encampment.  Before  starting,  the  sun  was 
down  —  to  us;  but,  as  I  reached  the  summit,  his  glorious 
rays  burst  upon  me.  And  how  glad  was  my  heart  as  I 
planted  the  flag  of  America  upon  that  mountain-top,  and 
beheld  it  fluttering  to  the  breezes  of  heaven  in  the  sun’s 
light.  The  red,  white,  and  blue — the  argent  stars  — 
seemed  gifted  with  a  speaking  spirit  that  said,  “  God  hath 
ever  blessed,  and  ever  will  bless  this  emblem  of  freedom 
and  power!  ”  Yes,  said  I,  mentally,  that  banner  now 
floats  where  white  man  never  stood  before.  The  Ameri¬ 
can  flag  precedes  all  others  in  proclaiming  that  this  is  the 
inceptive  moment  when  civilization,  with  all  its  attendant 
virtues,  makes  hither  its  advance. 

How  soul-inspiring  was  the  scene  before  me  as,  drink¬ 
ing  in  the  sweets  presented  to  my  eyes,  I  wended  my  way 
from  one  mountain-top  to  another.  It  was  night  when  I 
got  back  to  our  encampment,  and  I  was  immediately 


IN  FROBISHER  BAY 


263 


greeted  with  two  welcome  presents  of  blueberries. 
Tweroong  brought  hers  in  a  gold-banded  china  saucer. 
And  a  most  strange  sight  it  was,  here  amid  the  gray  old 
rocks,  and  among  this  iron  people,  to  see  such  an  emblem 
of  civilization  as  a  tea-saucer.  It  was  brim  full  of  ripe, 
luscious  berries,  which  were  then  very  abundant. 

On  Saturday,  August  31st,  the  weather  was  thick  and 
foggy.  In  the  morning  I  had  a  good  wash  with  snow  — 
not  snow  of  this  season,  however.  Wliat  its  age  was  I 
know  not ;  perhaps  it  belonged  to  many  winters  ago ;  but, 
notwithstanding,  it  was  fresh  and  white,  and  it  gave  me 
clean,  cool  hands  and  face,  which  is  a  luxury  in  the  North, 
as  well  as  in  any  other  place.  By  the  side  of  this  friendly 
snow-drift  was  abundant  vegetation,  green  and  fruitful, 
and  blueberries  all  around.  I  picked  some  with  rather 
cold,  stiff  fingers,  and  made  a  capital  feast.  I  had  not 
found  any  place  where  there  was  a  greater  variety  of 
vegetable  growth  within  the  same  space.  In  a  little  spot, 
not  over  four  feet  square,  one  could  count  more  than  fifty 
different  kinds  of  vegetation.  Mosses,  grasses,  berry- 
bushes,  flowers,  willows,  and  many  other  plants,  could  be 
enumerated  as  abounding  in  that  little  plot.  But  all  these 
were  quite  diminutive ;  for  instance,  the  blueberry-bushes 
were  only  from  an  inch  to  two  inches  in  height. 

On  this  day  I  made  arrangements  with  Miner  and 
Koojesse  for  the  whole  company  in  the  boats  and  Idas  to 
return  by  the  Kingaite  side.  It  was  agreed  that  we  should 
proceed  first  to  Aggoun  —  the  Innuit  name  of  the  west 
side  of  the  head  of  Frobisher  bay  —  and  thence  return 
and  follow  down  the  coast  of  Kingaite.  The  chief  reason 
for  my  making  such  an  arrangement  was  that,  by  having 
two  boats,  should  a  mishap  occur  to  one,  the  other  would 
be  our  4  1  Rescue.  ’  ’ 

We  started  from  our  thirteenth  encampment  in  the 
afternoon,  leaving  behind  two  of  the  Innuit  tents  erect, 
and  some  sundries,  to  be  called  for  on  our  return  from 
Aggoun.  Our  course  was  direct  for  the  northwest  end  of 
Bishop’s  Island,  upon  which  I  landed.  From  its  top  the 
whole  head  of  Frobisher  bay,  from  Sylvia  Grinnell  river, 
northeast  side,  to  Aggoun,  west  side,  was  in  view.  It  is 


264  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

fourteen  nautical  miles  across.  Tlie  termination  is  not  by 
deep  bays  or  fiords,  but  by  slight  indentations,  the 
greatest  not  exceeding  three  miles.  Bishop’s  island  was 
well  covered  with  vegetation,  especially  with  reindeer 
moss,  the  ground,  in  many  parts,  being  quite  carpeted 
with  it. 

As  we  descended  the  side-hill  leading  to  the  boat,  I 
found  the  women  busily  engaged  with  their  cups  in  blue¬ 
berry  picking,  pulling  them  now  and  then  by  the  handful, 
the  berries  were  so  large  and  abundant.  Before  long  the 
party  came  on  board,  bringing  with  them  quarts  of  the 
luscious  fruit,  with  which  they  entertained  us  very 
agreeably,  the  whole  scene  carrying  me  back  at  once 
among  the  friends  of  my  youth. 

Innuits  will  always  be  Innuits.  When  we  left  our  thir¬ 
teenth  encampment,  one  of  them  had  gone  off  with  his  kia 
to  an  island  to  hunt  some  tuktoo,  which  had  been  seen 
two  hours  before.  A  part  of  the  company  had  been  left 
with  the  other  boat  to  await  the  return  of  the  deer-hunter, 
while  the  rest  of  us  went  on  slowly,  stopping  at  Bishop’s 
island,  as  above  related.  We  had  but  just  re-embarked, 
when  Koojesse,  looking  through  his  spyglass  back  toward 
the  encampment,  announced  that  the  other  party  had  a 
tuktoo  in  the  water  —  a  live  tuktoo  !  This  fired  every  In- 
nuit ;  all  the  powers  of  reason  could  not  keep  them  from 
going  to  see  the  fun;  and  so  about  we  went,  and  in  a 
moment  they  were  all  pulling  back  as  for  dear  life.  The 
sequel  was  more  amusing  and  satisfactory  to  me  than  to 
my  Innuits.  When  they  came  near  enough  to  see  their 
live  tuktoo,  it  turned  out  to  be  only  a  goose ! 

After  sundry  other  vexatious  delays  of  a  similar  nature 
we  were  fairly  under  way,  and  the  scene  was  for  a  time 
pretty  indeed.  The  boats  were  alongside  of  each  other. 
The  Xnnuit  women  were  at  the  oars.  In  the  jacket-hood  of 
Puto  was  her  child,  the  constant,  measured  rock  of  the 
body  in  pulling  the  oar  being  equal  for  sleep-giving  to 
any  patent  Yankee  cradle  ever  invented.  The  gilt  head- 
bands  of  the  ladies  glittered  and  flashed,  and  the  whole 
picture  was  peculiar  and  charming. 

At  about  6  p.  m.  we  stopped  for  our  fourteenth  encamp- 


IN  FROBISHER  BAY 


265 


ment,1  the-  fog  shutting  us  out  from  all  view  except  of  the 
coast  on  our  left.  The  place  where  we  encamped  was  on 
the  Kingaite  side  of  Frobisher  bay,  at  the  base  of  a  long- 
straight  bank  of  sand  and  shingle,  from  thirty-five  to 
forty  feet  high,  the  top  being  a  grassy  slope  which 
extended  back  some  three  hundred  fathoms  to  the 
mountains. 

“  September  1,  1861. —  A  day  of  trials  and  discovery. 
At  last  1  am  where  I  have  long  desired  to  be.  From  my 
own  vision,  ‘  Frobisher ’s  strait  ’  is  a  myth.  It  only  exists 
in  the  minds  of  the  civilized  world  —  not  in  fact, 

“  I  find  this  side  still  more  interesting  than  the  other. 
Here,  at  the  west  extreme,  are  far  more  extensive  plains 
of  grassy  land  than  elsewhere.  Koojesse  has  this  mo¬ 
ment  passed  to  my  hands  wliat  I  think  will  prove  to  be 
rare  geological  specimens  —  fossils.” 

But  let  me  give  the  day’s  occurrences  in  a  methodical 
form ;  for  I  wrote  the  above,  and  much  more  in  my  diary 
while  sitting  on  the  rocks  that  are  at  the  head  of  Fro¬ 
bisher  bav,  after  several  hours’  severe  labor. 

The  morning  commenced  thick  and  foggy,  with  occa¬ 
sional  glimpses  of  finer  weather.  I  ascended  to  the  plain 
in  the  rear  of  the  fourteenth  encampment,  at  the  top  of 
the  sand  and  shingle  bank,  and  saw  much  vegetation,  with 
numerous  signs  of  reindeer  in  the  neighborhood.  Then  I 
examined  wherever  I  could;  but  my  view  was  very 
limited,  as  numerous  islands  bounded  the  vision  toward 
the  bay.  At  low  water  frequent  shoals  are  exposed,  and 
even  to  navigate  our  boats  thus  far  we  had  been  obliged 
to  wait  for  the  tide  at  half  flood. 

When  I  desired  to  get  under  way,  I  found  that  Koo- 
jesse,  without  saying  one  word  to  me  about  it,  had  gone 
out  on  the  mountains  tuktoo  hunting.  Ivooperneung  had 
also  taken  Miner  ’s  Ida,  and  had  set  out  in  advance  after 
seals.  Thus  was  I  perpetually  annoyed  by  the  freaks  and 
vagaries  of  this  free  and  independent  people.  At  last, 
however,  at  1  p.  m.,  we  left  our  encampment  and  pro¬ 
ceeded  up  the  west  side  of  the  bay,  toward  its  extreme 
head,  called  by  the  Innuits  Aggoun. 

1  Our  fourteenth  encampment  was  in  lat.  63°  41'  N.,  long.  68°  48'  W. 

Vol.  IY  — 16 


266 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


I  had  a  boat’s  crew  of  women;  for  Koodloo,  who  had 
frequently  proved  himself  a  lazy  dog,  sat  in  the  how  with 
his  oar  peaked,  leisurely  reclining  on  his  thwart.  Having 
gone  for  some  time  in  a  northwesterly  direction,  I  turned 
the  boat  toward  the  shore  (Kingaite  side),  intending  to 
land  and  visit  a  remarkable  ridge  of  what  seemed  to  be 
sand,  stretching  a  mile  or  so  along  the  coast.  Before  get¬ 
ting  near  the  shore,  though,  I  could  see  that  the  water 
was  becoming  very  shallow,  the  bottom  being  of  tine  sand, 
and  the  boat  soon  grounded.  As  I  could  not  make  a 
landing,  I  concluded  to  push  on,  for  I  felt  sure  that  we 
were  very  near  the  termination  of  Frobisher  bay.  I 
reckoned  without  my  host,  however,  in  thinking  to  get  on 
without  trouble.  The  Innuits  of  my  boat  looked  back  to 
the  craft  of  “  Miner,”  and  declared  that  the  latter  was 
making  an  encampment  about  a  mile  behind.  I  found  the 
crew  bent  on  going  thither,  but  I  was  determined  this 
should  not  be.  I  asked  Suzhi,  “  Noutima,  Aggoun?  ” — 
where  is  Aggoun  ?  She  pointed  to  where  Miner  was.  I 
knew  this  to  be  but  a  trick  to  get  me  back.  I  felt  that  I 
could  manage  women  at  least,  and  cried  out  “  A-choot !  ” 
— -pull  ahead  —  returning  a  decided  negative  to  their 
prayers  to  go  back.  With  some  difficulty  I  brought  them 
to  their  working  senses. 

Finally  we  reached  the  estuary  of  a  river  —  Jordan’s 
river,1  as  I  have  named  it  —  and,  after  crossing  it,  landed 
on  its  eastern  side.  We  were  then  obliged  to  wade  quite 
a  distance  to  the  shore  proper  through  mud  that  was 
nearly  knee  deep.  On  a  small  grass-plat  of  Hazard’s 
banks  2  we  made  our  fifteenth  encampment. 

Leaving  the  Innuits  to  unload  the  boat,  I  started  off  on 
a  tramp  of  discovery,  and  continued  my  course  up  the 
river,  which  at  first  ran  in  a  northwest  direction,  and 
then,  for  a  short  distance,  more  northerly.  As  I  walked 
along,  charmed  with  the  prospect  before  me,  I  came 
across  a  skull,  which  I  took  up  for  the  purpose  of  ascer¬ 
taining  from  the  Innuits  to  what  animal  it  belonged.  I 
afterward  found  that  it  was  that  of  a  white  whale.  I  saw 

1  Named  after  Daniel  B.  Jordan,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

2  The  land  on  the  east  side  of  the  estuary  of  Jordan’s  River  I  have 
named  after  Charles  S.  Hazard,  of  New  "York  City. 


IN  FROBISHER  BAY 


267 


around  me,  as  I  advanced,  that  vegetation  was  abundant, 
and  signs  of  animal  life  were  very  numerous.  As  I 
rounded  a  rocky  eminence  by  the  river  side,  at  a  distance 
of  a  mile  from  where  I  had  left  the  boat,  a  beautiful  cas¬ 
cade,  at  the  head  of  tide-water,  was  before  me,  and  at  its 
base  a  little  sheet  of  water  nearly  covered  with  Brent 
geese. 

From  this  point  an  extensive  and  picturesque  scene 
burst  upon  my  view.  Before  me  were  long  and  wide  plains, 
meadows  of  grass,  smoothly-sloping  hills,  and  a  range  of 
mountains  beyond,  which,  parting  in  one  particular  spot, 
formed,  as  it  were,  a  natural  gateway,  that  might  almost 
lead,  in  fancy,  to  some  fairy  land  beyond.  At  my  left, 
across  the  river,  was  a  ridge  of  white,  which  I  afterward 
named  Silliman’s  Fossil  mount,1  and  behind  it  the  un¬ 
broken  front  of  a  line  of  mountains  extending  north¬ 
westerly  to  the  opening  which  I  have  called  the  Great 
Gateway.  On  the  other,  or  northern  side,  the  mountains 
continued  from  this  singular  opening  on  by  Frobisher 
bay  to  the  locality  around  Field  bay,  far  to  the  south¬ 
west  and  eastward.  Flocks  of  little  chirping  birds  greeted 
me  at  every  turn,  and  nowyers  and  ducks  were  in  num¬ 
bers  before  my  eye.  Words  cannot  express  my  delight,  in 
view  of  this  scene,  as  I  stood  by  the  waterfall,  beholding 
its  white  spray,  and  the  clear,  limpid  stream  of  the  river. 

The  fall  is  about  twenty-five  feet  in  three  or  four  rods, 
and  at  no  place  over  four  feet  descent  at  once.  The  river 
is  not  so  large  as  the  Sylvia  Grinnell,  and  yet,  though 
the  season  is  evidently  a  dry  one,  much  water  flows  along, 
and  at  certain  portions  of  the  year  this  stream  must  dis¬ 
charge  a  large  quantity.  The  banks  in  some  places  are  of 
fine  sand,  and  in  others,  farther  up,  of  ledges  of  rocks 
that  are  from  fifty  to  sixty  feet  high.  I  wandered  about 
for  two  hours,  and  then  returned  to  our  camp. 

Miner’s  boat  was  out  at  the  time,  but  I  soon  saw  it  ap¬ 
proaching  at  great  speed,  its  crew  shouting  lustily.  In  a 

1  Thus  named  after  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.,  of  Hew  Haven,  Conn. 
This  fossil  mount  is  on  the  west  side  of  the  termination  of  Frobisher 
bay. 


268 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


moment  I  perceived  the  cause  of  their  excitement.  A 
white  whale  was  swiftly  making  its  way  through  the 
waters  toward  the  main  bay.  The  Innuits  were  after  it, 
and  their  shouting  voices  made  the  neighborhood  ring 
again;  but  it  escaped,  and  the  boat  came  to  our  encamp¬ 
ment,  the  occupants  in  no  good  humor.  One  of  the  men, 
Charley,  clearly  proved  this.  His  wife  was  helping  to  un¬ 
load  the  boat,  and  had  to  walk  through  deep  mud  with  a 
heavy  load  upon  her  shoulder.  Suddenly,  for  some  un¬ 
known  cause,  Charley,  with  great  force,  threw  his  seal- 
hook  directly  at  her.  It  caught  in  her  jacket.  Turning 
round,  she  calmly  took  it  out,  and  then  walked  on  again. 
It  was  a  cruel  act  of  the  man,  but  these  Innuits  always 
summarily  punish  their  wives  for  any  real  or  imaginary 
offense.  They  seize  the  first  thing  at  hand  —  a  stone, 
knife,  hatchet,  or  spear  —  and  throw  it  at  the  offending 
woman,  just  as  they  would  at  their  dogs. 

Two  of  our  party  were  still  absent.  Koojesse,  however, 
made  his  appearance  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  send  the  kia  to  fetch  him  off.  Now  a 
kia  has  but  one  hole  in  its  covering  for  the  person  who 
uses  it;  therefore,  if  a  second  person  is  to  be  carried  any¬ 
where,  he  or  she  must  take  a  position  directly  behind  the 
other  occupant,  lying  flat  on  the  face,  perfectly  straight 
and  still.  It  was  in  this  manner  that  Koojesse,  and 
afterward  Toolookaah,  were  brought  off. 

I  had  another  walk  up  to  the  falls,  and  again  the  scene 
appeared  to  me  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  I  had  ever 
beheld.  I  felt  like  those  old  Icelanders  who  visited  the 
regions  west  of  them,  and,  because  of  more  verdure  seen 
than  in  their  own  country,  exclaimed,  “  This  is  Green¬ 
land  !  ”  In  the  present  case,  my  feeling  was  that  no  more 
appropriate  name  could  be  given  to  the  district  before  me 
than  “  Greenwood’s  Land,”  in  honor  of  Miles  Green¬ 
wood,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  I  think  no  one,  not  even  an 
English  geographer,  will  question  my  right  to  name  this 
land.  At  the  head  of  Frobisher  bay  —  now  positively 
determined  to  be  such,  and  no  longer  a  “  strait  ”  —  exists 
this  beautiful  and  fertile  district,  and  I  considered  the 
name  of  Greenwood  to  be  especially  appropriate. 


(( 


MEN  OF  PROGRESS’’ 


tt. 


FROM  AN  ENGRAVING  PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SCIENTIFIC  AMERICAN”  IN  1861 

Top  row  left  of  centre : 

Jas.  Bogardus  Samuel  Colt  Joseph  Saxton 

Iron  Buildings.  Fire  Arms.  Fine  Machinery. 

Peter  Cooper  Prof.  Henry 

Organizing  of  Manufacture.  Electro-Magnetism. 

Top  row  right  of  centre  : 

John  Ericsson  S.  F.  B.  Morse  Richard  Hoe 

Marine  Engineering.  Telegraph.  Rotary  Press. 

Erastus  Bigelow  Thos.  Blanchard 

Carpet  Loom.  Eccentric  Lathe. 

Lower  row  left  of  centre : 

C.  H.  McCormick  Chas.  Goodyear 

Harvesting  Mach.  Vulcanized  Rubber. 
J.  L.  Mott 

Iron  Work. 

Lower  row  right  of  centre  : 

Dr.  Nott  F.  E.  Sickles  Henry  Burden 

Heating  of  Bldgs.  Steam  Engines.  Iron  Working. 

Jennings  Elias  Howe 

Friction  Matches.  Sewing  Machines. 


Dr.  Morton 

Anaesthesia 


PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS 


A  list  of  important  inventions  in  chronological  order  beginning  with  the  16th  century, 
with  the  title  of  the  invention,  the  year  it  was  made,  the  name  of  the  inventor  and  his 
nativity: 


Inventions. 


Discoveries  of  electrical  phenomena. 


electricity.” 

Screw  printing-press . 

Spirally  grooved  rifle  barrel . 

Iron  furnaces . 

The  use  of  steam . 

The  first  authentic  reference 


in 


Colonies . 

Barometer . 

Steam  engine,  atmospheric  pressure . 

Machine  for  generating  electricity . 

First  paper  mill  in  America . 

First  steam  engine  with  a  piston . 

The  manufacture  of  plate  glass  established. . . 
First  to  discover  difference  between  elec 
,  conductors  and  insulators . 


engine . 

First  Newspaper  in  America,  ‘ 

Letter  ” . 

First  to  produce  electric  spark. 


Thermometer . 

Electrometer,  the  well-known  pith  ball. 


The  “  Franklin  ”  printing-press. 
Electrical  glass  plate  machine. . 


Stereotyping. 


kinds . 

Flying  shuttle  in  weaving . 

Rotary  3-color  printing  press  (multi-color) . . . 

Electric  or  Leyden  Jar . 

Substitution  of  coke  for  coal  in  melting  iron. 

Lightning  conductor . 

Spinning  jenny . 

Pianoforte,  played  in  public  in  England  in. . . . 
Drawing  rolls  in  a  spinning  machine . 


ing  engine  for  pulping  rags  in  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  paper . 

The  mule  spinner . 

Cut  nails . 

Circular  wood  saw .  . 

Embryo  bicycle . 

Steam  engine,  the  basis  of  the  modern  engine. 

Gas  balloon . 

Puddling  iron . 

Plow,  with  cast  -  iron  mold  board,  and 

wrought  and  cast-iron  shares . 

Power  loom . .  . 

First  steamboat  in  the  United  States . 

Steam  road  wagon  (first  automobile) . 

Grain  threshing  machine . . . 

Hobby  horse,  forerunner  of  bicycle . 

Rotary  steam  power  printing-press,  the  first 

idea  of . 

Wood  planing  machine  .  . . . 


Date. 

Inventor. 

f  1560 

William  Gilbert . 

E  | 1603 

1620 

1620 

Blaew . . 

1621 

Foster . 

1630 

Lord  Dudley . 

David  Ramseye . . . 

1640 

1643 

Torricelli . 

1663 

Thomas  Newcomen . 

1681  6 

Otto  von  Guericke . 

1690 

William  Rittenhouse. . . 

1690 

Denys  Papin . 

1695 

j  1696 

1  1736 

Stephen  Gray . 

1702 

Thomas  Savery . 

1704 

John  Campbell . 

j  1708 

Dr.  J.  Ward . 

j  1716 

1709 

Fahrenheit . 

(  1718 

John  Cantor . 

1  1772 

1725 

Benjamin  Franklin . 

j  1727 

Martin  de  Planta . 

1 1772 

1731 

William  Ged . 

1733-9 

Cisternay  du  Fay . 

1733 

John  Kay . 

1743 

Platt  &  Keen . 

1745 

Kleist . 

1750 

Abraham  Darby . 

1752 

Benjamin  Franklin . 

1763 

James  Hargreaves . 

1767 

1769 

Richard  Arkwright.... 

1773 

1774 

Samuel  Crampton . 

1775 

Jeremiah  Wilkinson. . . . 

1777 

Miller . 

1779 

Brauchard  &  Magurier. 

1782 

James  Watt . 

1783 

J.E.  &  J.  M.  Montgolfier. 

1783-4 

Henry  Cort . 

1784 

James  Small . 

1785 

James  Cartwright . 

1786 

John  Fitch . 

1787 

Oliver  Evans . 

1788 

Andrew  Meikle . 

1790 

1790 

Wm.  Nicholson . 

1791 

Samuel  Bentham . 

Nativity. 


England 


Germany 

England 

England 

England 


Mass. 

Italy 

England 

Germany 

Penna. 

France 

France 

England 

England 

Mass. 

England 

Danzig 

England 

U.  S. 
France 

Scotland 

France 

England 

England 

Germany 

England 

U.  S. 

England 

England 

England 


England 

U.  S. 

England 

France 

Scotland 

France 

England 

Scotland 
England 
U.  S. 

u.  s. 

England 

England 

England 

England 


From  the  Scientific  American  Reference  Book,  copyright,  by  permission. 

271 


272  EXPLORATION",  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION" 
PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS  —  Continued. 


Inventions. 


Gas  first  used  as  an  illuminant . 

Cotton  gin . . . . . 

Art  of  lithography . 

Machine  for  making  continuous  webs  of 

paper . 

Electric  battery  discovered . 

Steam  coach . 

Wood  mortising  machine . 

Pattern  loom . 

First  fire-proof  safe .  . 

Steamboat  on  the  Clyde,  “  Charlotte  Dundas 

First  photographic  experiments . 

Planing  machine . 

The  application  of  steam  to  the  loom . 

Steel  pen . 

Steam  locomotive  on  rails . 

Application  of  twin-screw  propellers  in  steam 

navigation . . 

Process  of  making  malleable-iron  castings  . . . 

First  life  preserver . 

Electro-plating . 

Knitting  machine,  the  latch  needle  in  the.  „ . . 
Steamboat  navigation  on  the  Hudson  River. . 

Percussion  or  detonating  compound . 

First  street  gas  lighting  in  England . 

Band  wood  saw .  . 

Voltaic  arc .  . 

First  steamboat  to  make  a  trip  to  sea,  the 

“Phoenix  ” . 

Multi-wire  telegraphy . . . 

Revolving  cylinder  printing-press . 

Breech-loading  shotgun . 

Storage  battery . 

Dry  pile  (prototype  of  dry  battery) . 

First  practical  steam  rotary  printing-press, 

paper  printed  on  both  sides . 

First  locomotive  in  United  States . 

First  circular  wood  saw  made  in  this  country. 

Heliography . 

Kaleidoscope . 

Miners’  safety  lamp . 

Dry  gas  meter . 

Knitting  machine . 

“  Draisine  ”  bicycle, . 

“  Columbian  ”  press,  elbowed  pulling  bar, 

number  of  impressions  per  hour,  50 . 

Stethoscope . 

Electro-magnetism  discovered . 

Rathe  for  turning  irregular  wood  forms . 

The  theory  of  electro-dynamics  first  pro¬ 
pounded . ! . 

Electroscope . . . . . 

The  conversion  of  the  electric  current  into 

mechanical  motion . 

Galvanometer . 

Multi-color  printing . 

Calculating  machine .  . . . 

Discovery  of  thermo-electricity . 

Liquefaction  and  solidification  of  gas . 

Water  gas,  discovery  of . 

Portland  cement . 

Electro-magnet . 

First  passenger  railway,  opened  between 

Stockton  and  Darlington,  England . 

Electrical  spur  wheel . . 

First  railroad  in  United  States,  near  Quincy, 

Mass . . . 

The  law  of  galvanic  circuits  formulated . 

Friction  matches . 

The  induction  of  aluminum . . . 

Law  of  electrical  resistance . 

Improved  rotary  printing-press,  London 

Times,  5,000  impressions  per  hour . 

Hot  air  blast  for  iron  furnaces . 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Nativity. 

1792 

Wm.  Murdoch . 

England 

1794 

1796 

Eli  Whitney . 

Alois  Senefelder . 

U.  S. 

Germany 

1800 

Louis  Robert . 

France 

1800 

Volta . 

Italy 

1801 

Richard  Trevithick.... 

England 

1801 

M.  J.  Brunei . 

England 

1801 

M.  J.  Jacquard . 

France 

1801 

Richard  Scott . 

England 

1802 

William  Symington.... 

England 

1802 

Wedgwood  &  Davy . 

England 

1802 

J.  Bramah . 

England 

1803 

William  Horrocks . 

England 

1803 

Wise . 

England 

1804 

Richard  Trevithick . 

England 

1804 

John  Stevens . 

U.  S. 

1804 

Lucas . 

England 

1805 

John  Edwards . 

England 

1805 

Luigi  Brugnatelli . 

Italy 

1808 

Jeandeau . 

France 

1807 

Robert  Fulton . 

U.  S. 

1807 

A.  J.  Forsyth . 

Scotland 

1807 

F.  A.  Winsor . 

England 

1808 

Newberry . 

England 

1808 

Sir  Humphry  Davy . 

England 

1808 

John  Stevens . 

U.  S. 

1809 

Sommering . 

Germany 

1810 

Frederick  Koenig . 

Germany 

1811 

Thornton  &  Hall . 

U.S. 

1812 

J.  B.  Ritter . 

Germany 

1812 

Zamboni . 

Italy 

1814 

Frederick  Koenig . 

Germany 

1814 

George  Stephenson.... 

England 

1814 

Benjamin  Cummings.. 

U.  S. 

1814 

Jos.  N.  Niepce . 

France 

1814 

Sir  David  Brewster. . . . 

England 

1815 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  .... 

England 

1815 

S.  Clegg . 

England 

1816 

Brunei . 

England 

1816 

Baron  von  Drais . 

Germany 

1817 

George  Clymer . 

U.  S. 

1819 

Laennec . 

France 

1819 

H.  C.  Oersted  . 

Denmark 

1819 

Thomas  Blanchard . 

U.  S. 

1820 

Andre  Ampere . 

France 

1820 

Bohenberg . . . 

Germany 

1821 

Michael  Faraday . 

England 

1822 

Schweigger . 

Germany 

1822 

P.  Force . 

U.  S. 

1822 

Charles  Babbage . 

England 

1823 

Prof.  Seebeck . 

England 

1823 

Michael  Faraday . 

England 

1823 

Ibbetson . 

England 

1825 

Joseph  Aspdin . 

England 

1825 

Sturgeon . . . 

England 

1825 

1826 

Barlow . 

England 

1826 

1827 

George  S.  Ohm . 

Germany 

1827 

John  Walker . 

U.  S. 

1827 

Friedrich  Wohler . 

Germany 

1827 

George  S.  Ohm . 

Germany 

1827 

Cowper  &  Applegarth. . 

England 

1828 

J.  B.  Neilson . 

Scotland 

PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS 


27 


o 

O 


PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS  —  Continued. 


Inventions. 


Wood  planing  machine . 

Snool  electro-magnet . 

Tubular  locomotive  boiler . . 

Spinning  ring  frame . 

The  “  Washington  ”  printing-press,  lever  mo¬ 
tion  and  knuckle  joint  for  a  screw,  number 

of  impressions  per  hour,  200 . 

First  steam  locomotive  in  United  States, 

“  Stourbridge  Lion  ” . 

Double  fluid  galvanic  battery . 

First  portable  steam  fire  engine . 

Magneto-electric  induction . 

Chloroform . 

First  conception  of  electric  telegraph . 

First  magneto-electric  machines . 

Rotary  electric  motor . 

Chloral-hydrate . 

Locomotive,  “  Old  Ironsides,”  built . 

Link  motion  for  locomotives . 

Adoption  of  steam  whistle  for  locomotives . . . 
Reciprocating  saw-tooth  cutter  within  double 

guard  fingers  for  reapers . 

“  McCormick  ”  reaper . 

Rotary  electric  motor . 

Carbolic  acid  discovered . 

Horseshoe  machine . 

Constant  electric  battery . 

Acetylene  gas  discovered . 

The  revolver;  a  device  “  for  combining  a  num¬ 
ber  of  long  barrels  so  as  to  rotate  upon  a 
spindle  by  the  act  of  cocking  the  hammer  ”. 
The  screw  applied  to  steam  navigation . 

The  galvanizing  of  iron . 

Indicator- telegraph . 

Photographic  carbon  printing . 

Babbitt  metal . 

Vulcanization  of  rubber . 

The  first  boat  electrically  propelled . 

Daguerreotype  . 

(First  to  produce  a  direct  photographic 
positive  in  the  camera  by  means  of  highly  pol¬ 
ished  silver  surfaced  plate  exposed  to  the  va¬ 
pors  of  iodine  and  subsequent  development 
with  mercury  vapor.) 

Making  photo-prints  from  paper  negatives. . 

(First  production  of  positive  proofs  from 
negatives.) 

Photographic  portraits  (Daguerreotype  pro¬ 
cess)  . 

First  incandescent  electric  lamp . 

Celestial  photography . . 

Artesian  well . 

Pneumatic  caissons . 

Pianoforte  automatically  played . 

Water  gas,  utilization  of . 

Steam  hammer. . . . 

Typewriting  machine . . 

First  telegram  sent .  . 

The  use  of  nitrous  oxide  gas  as  an  anaesthetic. 
The  electric  arc  light  (gas  retort  carbon  in  a 

vacuum) . :  •  •  > . .• 

First  telegraphic  message,  Washington,  Balti¬ 
more . V 

Automatic  adjustment  of  electric  arc  Iigut 

carbons  ••••••••••••••••••••••••*•••*•••••••• 

Double  cylinder  printing-press . 

Pneumatic  tire . 

Sewing  machine . 

Printing  telegraph . 

Suez  canal  started  . . . . 

Ether  as  an  anaesthetic . 

Electric  cautery . 

Artificial  limbs . . .  . 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Nativity. 

1823 

William  Woodworth... 

U.  S. 

1828 

Joseph  Henry . 

u.  s. 

1828 

Sequin . 

France 

1828 

John  Thorp . 

England 

1829 

Samuel  Rust . 

U.  S. 

1829 

1829 

A.  C.  Becquerel . 

France 

1830 

Brathwaite  &  Ericsson. 

England 

1831 

Michael  Faraday . 

England 

1831 

G.  J.  Guthrie . 

Scotland 

1832 

Prof.  S.  F.  B.  Morse . 

U.  S. 

1832 

Saxton  . 

u.  s. 

1832 

Wm.  Sturgeon . 

England 

1832 

Justus  von  Liebig . 

Germany 

1832 

M.  W.  Baldwin . 

U.  S. 

1832 

Sir  Henry  James . 

England 

1833 

George  Stephenson .... 

England 

1833 

Obed  Hussey . 

U.S. 

1834 

Cyrus  H.  McCormick. . 

U.  S. 

1834 

M.  H.  Jacobi . 

Russia 

1834 

Runge . . . 

Germany 

1835 

H.  Burden . 

U.S. 

1836 

J.  P.  Daniell . 

England 

1836 

Edmund  Davy . 

England 

1836 

Samuel  Colt . . 

U.  S. 

J  1836 
{  1841 

John  Ericsson . 

U.  S. 

1837 

Henry  Craufurd . 

England 

1837 

Cooke  &  Wheatstone.. 

England 

1838 

Mungo  Ponton . 

France 

1839 

Isaac  Babbitt . 

U.  S. 

1839 

Charles  Goodyear . 

u.  s. 

1839 

Jacobi . 

Germany 

1839 

Louis  Daguerre . 

France 

1839 

Fox  Talbot . 

England 

1839 

Profs.  Draper  &  Morse. 

U.  S. 

1840 

Grove . 

England 

1840 

Draper  . 

U.  S. 

1840 

1841 

Paris 

M.  Triger . 

France 

1842 

M.  Seytre . 

France 

1842 

Selligne . 

France 

1842 

James  Nasmyth . 

Scotland 

1843 

Charles  Thurber . 

U.  S. 

1844 

Prof.  S.  F.  B.  Morse. . . . 

U.  S. 

1844 

Dr.  Horace  Wells . 

U.S. 

1844 

Leon  Foucault . 

France 

1844 

Prof.  S.  F.  B.  Morse. . . . 

U.  S. 

1845 

Thomas  Wright . 

England 

1845 

R.  Hoe  &  Co . 

U.S. 

1845 

R.  W.  Thompson . 

England 

1846 

Elias  Howe . 

U.  S. 

1846 

House . 

u.  s. 

1846 

De  Lesseps . 

France 

1848 

Dr.  Morton . 

U.  S. 

1846 

1846 

Crusell . 

Russia 

274  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 
PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS —  Continued. 


Inventions. 


Gun  cotton . . . 

First  pianoforte  keyboard  player . 

Chloroform  in  surgery . 

Nitro-glycerine . 

Time  lock  . . 

Hoe’s  lightning  press,  capable  of  printing 

20,000  impressions  per  hour . 

Match-making  machinery . 

Breech  gun-lock,  interrupted  thread . 

Magazine  gun . 

Steam  pressure  gauge . 

Lenticular  stereoscope . 

Latch  needle  for  knitting  machine.. . 

“  Corliss  ”  engine .  . 

Printing-press,  curved  plates  secured  to  a  ro¬ 
tating  cylinder . 

Mercerized  cotton .  . 

Collodion  process  in  photography . 

American  machine-made  watches . 

Electric  locomotive . 

Self-raker  for  harvesters . 

Breech-loading  rifle . 

Icemaking  machine . 

Opthalmoscope . 

The  Ruhmkorff  coil . 

Fire-alarm  telegraph . 

Reticulated  screen  for  half-tone  photographic 

printing . 

Soda  process  of  making  pulp  from  wood . 

Laws  of  magneto-electric  induction . 

Laws  of  electro-statics . 

Electrolysis . 

Duplex  telegraph . 

Photographic  roll  films . 

Diamond  rock  drill . 

Four-motion  feed  for  sewing  machines . 

Magazine  firearm . 

Fat  decomposed  by  water  or  steam  at  high 
temperature,  since  largely  used  in  soap 

making . 

Safety  matches . 

Iron-clad  floating  batteries  first  used  in  Cri¬ 
mean  war . 

Cocaine .  . 

Process  of  making  steel,  blowing  air  through 

molten  pig  iron . 

Dryplate  photography . 

Bicycle . 

Sleeping  car . 

Aniline  dyes . 

Printing  machine  for  the  blind  (contains  ele¬ 
ments  of  the  present  typewriting  machine). 

Regenerative  furnace . 

Refining  engine  in  paper  pulp  making . 

Coal-oil  first  sold  in  the  United  States . 

First  sea-going  iron-clad  war  vessel,  the 

“  Glorie  ” . 

Ground  wood  pulp . 

Inclined  elevator  and  platform  in  the  reaper 

Cable  car . 

Breech-loading  ordnance . 

Feed  injector  for  boilers . . 

First  Atlantic  cable . 

Great  Eastern  launched. . . 

Storage  or  secondary  battery . 

Singing  telephone . 

Ammonia  absorption  ice  machine . 

Improved  stereotyping  process . 

Shoe-sewing  machine . . 

Driven  well,  a  tube  with  a  pointed  perforated 

end  driven  into  the  ground . 

Passenger  elevator . 

Barbed-wire  fence  introduced . 

Calcium  carbide  produced . 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Nativity. 

184G 

Schonbein . 

Germany 

1846 

Debain . 

France 

1847 

Dr.  Simpson . 

Scotland 

1847 

Sobrero . . . 

1847 

Savage .  . 

U.  S. 

1847 

Richard  M.  Hoe . 

u.  s. 

1848 

A.  L.  Dennison . 

u.  s. 

1849 

Chambers . 

u.  s. 

1849 

Walter  Hunt . 

u.  s. 

1849 

Bourdon . 

France 

1849 

Sir  David  Brewster  .-. . . 

England 

1849 

J.  T.  Hibbert . 

U.  S. 

1849 

G.  H.  Corliss . 

u.  s. 

1849 

Jacob  Worms . 

France 

1850 

John  Mercer . 

England 

1850 

Scott  Archer . 

England 

1850 

U  S. 

1851 

Dr.  Page . 

u.  s. 

1851 

W.  II.  Seymour . 

u.  s. 

1851 

Maynard . 

u.  s. 

1851 

J.  Gorrie . 

u.  s. 

1851 

Helmholtz . 

Germany 

1851 

Ruhmkorff . 

Germany 

1852 

Channing  &  Farmer. . . 

U.  S. 

1852 

Fox  Talbot  . 

England 

1853 

Watt  &  Burgess . 

U.  S. 

1853 

Michael  Faraday . 

England 

1853 

Michael  Faraday . 

England 

1853 

Michael  Faraday . 

England 

1853 

Gintl . 

Austria 

1854 

Melhuish . 

England 

1854 

Herman . 

U.  S. 

1854 

A.  B.  Wilson . 

u.  s. 

1854 

Smith  &  Wesson . 

u.  s. 

1854 

R.  A.  Tilghman . 

u.s. 

1855 

Lundstrom . 

Sweden 

1855 

1855 

Gaedeke . 

Germany 

1855 

Sir  Henry  Bessemer. . . . 

England 

1855 

Dr.  J.  M.  Taupenot . 

1855 

Ernst  Michaux . 

France 

1856 

Woodruff . 

U.  S. 

1856 

Perkins . 

England 

1856 

Alfred  E.  Beach . 

U.  S. 

1856 

Wm.  Siemens . 

England 

1856 

T.  Kingsland . . 

U.S. 

1857 

Messrs.  Stout  &  Hand . . 

U.S. 

1857 

France 

1858 

Henry  Voelter . 

Germany 

1858 

J.  S.  Marsh . 

U.  S. 

1858 

E.  A.  Gardner . 

u.  s. 

1858 

Wright  &  Gould . 

u.  s. 

1858 

Giffard . 

France 

1858 

Cyrus  Field . 

U.  S. 

1859 

1860 

Gaston  Plante . 

France 

1860 

Philip  Reis . 

Germany 

1860 

F.  P.  E.  Carre . 

France 

1861 

Charles  Craske . 

U.  S. 

1861 

George  McKay . 

U.  S. 

1861 

Col.  N.  W.  Green . 

U.  S. 

1861 

E.  G.  Otis . 

U.S. 

1861 

u.  s. 

1862 

Frederick  Woehler . 

Germany] 

v 


PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS 


275 


PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS  —  Continued. 


Inventions. 


Revolving  turret  for  floating  battery . 

First  iron-clad  steam  battery,  “Monitor  “. . . . 

Gatling  gun . 

Smokeless  gunpowder . 

Pneumatic  pianoforte  player  (regarded  as 
first  to  strike  keys  by  pneumatic  pockets). 

Explosive  gelatine . 

Rubber  dental  plate . 

Automatic  grain-binding  device . 

Process  of  making  fine  steel . 

Antiseptic  surgery . 

Web-feeding  printing-press . 

Automatic  shell  ejector  for  revolver . 

Open-hearth  steel  process . 

Compressed  air  rock  drill . 

Torpedo . 

Dynamo  electric  machine . 

Dynamo  electric  machine . 

Sulphite  process  for  making  paper  pulp  from 

wood . 

Disappearing  gun  carriage . 

First  practical  typewriting  machine . 

Dynamite  . . . . . 

Oleomargarine . 

Water  heater  for  steam  fire  engine . 

Sulky  plow . 

Railway  air-brake . 

Tunnel  shield  (operated  by  hydraulic  power). 

A  curved  spring  tooth  harrow . 

Dynamo-electric  machine . 

Celluloid . 

Rebounding  gun-lock . 

The  Goodyear  welt  shoe-sewing  machine . 

Photographic  gelatino-  bromide  emulsion 

(basis  of  present  rapid  photography) . 

Continuous  web  printing-press . 

Grain  binder . 

Compressed  air  rock  drill . 

positive  motion  weaving  loom . 

Theory  that  light  is  an  electric  phenomenon. 

Automatic  air  brake . . . 

Automatic  car  coupler . 

The  photographic  platinotype  process . 

(Prints  by  this  process  are  permanent.) 

Quadruplex  telegraph . 

Twine  binder  for  harvesters . . . 

Gelatino-bromide  photographic  emulsion 
(sensitiveness  to  light  greatly  increased  by 

the  application  of  heat) . 

Self-binding  reaper . 

Barbed- wire  machine . 

Siphon  recorder  for  submarine  telegraphs. . . 

Store  cash  carrier . 

Illuminating  water  gas . 

Roller  flour  mills . 

Middlings  purifier  for  flour . 

Ice-making  machine . 

Speaking  telephone . 

Electric  candle . . . 

(The  first  step  towards  the  division  of  the 
electric  current  for  lighting.) 

Continuous  machine  for  making  tobacco 

cigarettes . 

Steam  feed  saw  mills . 

The  first  Portland  cement  plant  in  U.  S . 

Phonograph .  . 

Gas  engine . 

Carbon  microphone . 

Telephone  transmitter  of  variable  resistance. 

Carbon  filament  for  electric  lamp . 

(Beginning  of  the  incandescent  vacuum 
electric  light.) 

Rotary  disk  cultivator . . 

Decided  advance  in  the  “expression  of 
self-playing  pianofortes . 


1862 

1862 

1862 

1863 

1863 

1864 
1864 

1864 

1865 
1865 
1865 

1865 

1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 
1866 

1867 

1868 
1868 
1868 
1868 
1868 
1888 
1869 
1869 

1869 

1870 
1870 

1870 

1871 

1871 

1871 

1871 

1871 
1S72 

1872 

1872 

1873 
1873 

1873 

1873 


1873 

1873 

1874 

1874 

1875 
1875 
1875 
1875 

1875 

1876 
1876 


1S76 

1876 

1876 

1877 
1877 
1877 

1877 

1878 


1878 

1878 


Inventor. 


Theodore  Tim  by . 

John  Ericsson . 

Dr.  R.  J.  Gatling . 

J.  F.  E.  Schultze . 

M.  Fourneaux . 

A.  Nobel . . 

J.  A.  Cummings . 

Jacob  Behel . 

Martin . 

Sir  Joseph  Lister . 

William  Bullock . 

W.  C.  Dodge . 

Siemens-Martin . 

C.  Burleigh . 

Whitehead . 

Wilde . 

Siemens . 

Tilghman . 

Moncrief . 

C.  L.  Sholes . 

A.  Nobel . 

H.  Mege . . 

W.  A.  Brickell . 

B.  Slusser . 

George  Westinghouse. . 

Alfred  E.  Beach . 

David  L.  Carver . 

Gramme . 

J.  W.  &  Isaac  Hyatt. . . . 

L. Hailer . 

Goodyear . 

R.  L.  Maddox . 

Hoe  &  Tucker . 

S.  D.  Locke . 

S.  Ingersoll . 

J.  Lyall . 

Clerk  Maxwell . , . 

George  Westinghouse. . 

E.  H.  Janney . 

Willis . 

T.  A.  Edison . 

M.  L.  Gorham . 


Charles  Bennett . 

Locke  &  Wood . 

Glidden  &  Vaughan. . . . 
Sir  William  Thompson. 

D.  Brown . 

T.  S.  C.  Lowe . 

F.  Wegmann . 

Geo.  T.  Smith..  . 

R.  P.  Pictet . 

Alex.  G.  Bell . 

Paul  Jablochkoff . 


Russell . 

D.  C.  Prescott 


T.  A.  Edison . . 
N.  A.  Otto. . . , 
T.  A.  Edison.  . 
Emil  Berliner 
T.  A.  Edison . . 


Mallon 

Gaily.. 


Nativity. 


U.  S. 

u.  s. 
u.  s. 

Prussia 

France 

France 

U.S. 

U.  S. 

u.  s. 

England 
U.  S. 

U.S. 
England 
U.  S. 

u.  s. 

England 

Germany 

U.S. 
England 
U.  S. 
France 
France 
U.  S. 

u.  s. 
u.  s. 
u.  s. 
u.  s. 

France 

u.  s. 
u.  s. 
u.  s. 

England 

U.S. 

U.S. 

u.  s. 
u.  s. 

England 
U.  S. 

U.S. 

England 

U.S. 

U.  S. 


England 
U.  S, 

u.  s. 

England 
U.  S. 

u.  s. 
u.  g. 

XJ  s 

Switzerl’d 

u.  s. 

Russia 


U.S. 

u.  s, 

Coplay,  Pa 
U.S. 

u.  s. 
u.  s. 
u.  s. 

U.S. 


U.S. 

u.  s. 


276  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 
PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS —  Continued. 


Inventions. 


Automatic  grain  binder . 

Catbode  rays  discovered . 

Electric  railway . 

Steam  plow . . . 

Magazine  rifle . 

“  Blake 11  telephone  transmitter . . 

Hammer  less  gun .  . 

Storage  battery  or  accumulator . 

Typhoid  bacillus  isolated . 

Pneumonia  bacillus  isolated . 

Button-hole  machine . 

Hand  photographic  camera  for  plates . 

Improvement  in  “expression”  of  self-playing 

pianofortes . 

Tuberculosis  bacillus  isolated . 

Hydrophobia  bacillus  isolated . 

Cholera  bacillus  isolated . . . 

Diphtheria  bacillus  isolated . 

Lockjaw  bacillus  isolated . 

Antipyi’ene . 

Linotype  machine . 

The  rear-driven  chain  safety  bicycle . 

Chrome  tanning  of  leather . 

Process  of  x-educing  aluminum . 

Gas  burner . 

Hydraulic  dredge . 

First  electric  railway  in  United  States.  Hamp¬ 
den  and  Baltimore,  Md . .  . 

Contact  device  for  ovei’head  electric  trolley. . 

Graphophone  . 

Electric  welding . 

Combined  harvester  and  thresher . 

Band  wood  saw . 

Cyanide  process  of  obtaining  gold  and  silver. 

System  of  polyphase  electric  currents . 

Incandescent  gas  light . 

(The  formation  of  a  cone-shaped  interwoven 
mantle  of  thread  coated  with  a  refractory  rare 
earth  and  l'endering  the  same  incandescent 
by  the  heat  rays  of  a  Bunsen  gas  bui'ner  re¬ 
gardless  of  how  the  gas  is  produced.) 

Process  of  annealing  armor  plate . 

“  Kodak  ”  snap-shot  camera . 

(Constructed  to  use  a  continuous  sensitized 
ribbon  film.) 

Process  of  making  artificial  silk . 

Hertzian  waves  or  electric-wave  r-adiation. . . 

First  rotary  cement  kilns  in  U.  S . 

Nickel  steel . 

Pi’ocess  for  making  aluminum . 

Electric  plow . 

Improved  linotype  machine . 

Bicycles  equipped  with  pneumatic  tires . 

Krag- Jorgensen  magazine  rifle . 

“  Coherer  ”  for  receiving  electric  waves . 

Rotary  steam  turbine . . . 

Cement-lined  paper-pulp  digester . 

Round  bale  cotton  pi'ess . 

Microphone . 

Power  loom . 

Commercial  application  of  formic-aldehyde. . 

Shoe-last  lathe,  for  diffei’ent  lengths . 

Kinetoscope . 

Process  for  making  carborundum . 

Calcium  carbide  produced  in  elective  f  uimace 

Process  for  liquefying  air . 

Electric  locomotive,  B.  &  O.  Bell  Tunnel . 

X-rays . 

Acetylene  gas  from  calcium  carbide . 

System  of  wireless  telegraphy . 

Foundation  laid  of  science  of  radio-activity, 
i.  e.,  emanation  of  peneti’ating  rays  from 

luminescent  bodies . . 

Use  of  ultra-violet  rays  in  treating  diseases. . 


Date. 

Inventor. 

Nativity. 

1879 

J.  F.  Appleby . 

U.  S. 

1879 

Sir  Wm.  Crookes . 

England 

1879 

Siemens . 

Germany 

1879 

W.  Foy . 

U.S. 

1879 

Lee . 

U.  S. 

1880 

Blake . 

u.  s. 

1880 

Greener  . 

U.S. 

1880 

Camille  A.  Faure . 

France 

1880 

E berth  &  Koch . 

Germany 

1880 

Sternberg . 

U.S. 

1881 

Reece . 

U.S. 

1881 

Wm.  Schmid . 

u.  s. 

1882 

Schmaele . 

u.  s. 

1882 

Robert  Koch . 

Germany 

1882 

Louis  Pasteur . 

France 

1884 

Robert  Koch . 

Germany 

1884 

Loeffler . 

Germany 

1884 

Nicolaier . 

France 

1884 

Kuno . 

U.S. 

1884 

Ottrnar  Mergenthaler. . 

Germany 

1884 

George  W.  Marble . 

U.  S. 

1884 

Schultz . 

u.  s. 

1885 

Cowles . 

England 

1885 

Carl  Welsbach . 

Germany 

1885 

Bowei’S . . 

U.  S. 

1885 

1885 

C.  J.  Van  Depoele . 

U.  S. 

1886 

Bell  &  Tainter . 

U.  S. 

1886 

Elihu  Thompson . 

U.  S. 

1886 

Matteson . 

U.  S. 

1887 

D.  C.  Pi’escott . 

U.S. 

1887 

McArthur  &  Forrest. . . 

U.  S. 

1887 

Nicola  Tesla . 

U.S. 

1887 

Carl  A.  Von  Welsbach. 

Austria 

1888 

Harvey . 

U.  S. 

1888 

Eastman  &  Walker.... 

U.  S. 

1888 

H.  DeChardonnet . 

France 

1888 

Heinrich  Hertz . 

Germany 

1889 

1889 

Coplay,  Pa 
U.  S. 

Schneider . 

1889 

Chas.  M.  Hall . 

u.  s. 

1890 

W.  Stephens . 

u.  s. 

1890 

Ottrnar  Mei'gan thaler. . 

Gei-many 

1890 

1890 

Krag- Jorgensen . 

u.  s. 

1891 

Edouard  Branly . 

England 

1891 

C.  A.  Parsons . 

England 

1891 

G.  F.  Russell . 

U.S. 

1891 

Brown, . 

U.  S. 

1891 

Emile  Bei’liner . 

u.  s. 

1891 

Northrup . 

u.  s. 

1892 

J  J.  A.  Trillat . 

Fi’ance 

1893 

Kimball . 

u.  s. 

1893 

T.  A.  Edison . . . 

U.S. 

1893 

E.  G.  Acheson . 

u.  s. 

1893 

Tlios.  L.  Willson . 

U.S. 

1895 

Carl  Linde . 

Germany 

1895 

u.  s. 

18  5 

Prof.  W.  C.  Roentgen.. 

Germany 

1895 

Thos.  L  Wilson . 

U.S. 

1896 

G.  Mai'coni . 

Italy 

1896 

Henri  Becquerel . 

France 

1896 

Niels  R.  Finsen . 

Denmark 

SOME  DISTINGUISHED  AMERICAN  INVENTORS  277 


PROGRESS  OF  INVENTIONS  -  Continued. 


Inventions. 


Nernst  electric  light . 

("Method  of  rendering  a  clay  compound  ca 
pable  of  conducting  electricity  and  thence 
becoming  brilliantly  incandescent  without  a 
vacuum.) 

Mercury  vapor  electric  light . 

(An  artificial  light  composed  strictly  of  the 
ultra  blue  violet  rays  of  the  spectrum  ob¬ 
tained  by  passing  an  electric  current  through 
a  partial  vacuum  tube  filled  with  mercury 
vapor,  the  latter  acting  as  a  conductor.  Pos¬ 
sesses  remarkable  actinic  power  for  photo¬ 
graphic  purposes.) 

Airship . 

Automobile  mower . 

The  first  passenger  steam  turbine  ship,  “Ed¬ 
ward  VII.” . 

The  first  oil-burning  steamship  built  in  the 

United  States,  “Nevada” . 

English  Pacific  cable,  Canada-Australia . 

American  Pacific  cable . 

Berlin-Zossen  Road,  130^  miles  an  hour . 

Wireless  telegraphy  greatly  extended . 

Wireless  telephony .  . 

Electric  furnace  for  refining  steel . 

Production  of  seedless  fruit  largely  developed 
Completion  of  the  Simplon  tunnel . 

Zambezi  River  Bridge  at  Victoria  Falls  com¬ 
pleted  . 


Date. 

Inventor. 

1897 

Walter  Nernst . 

1900 

Peter  Cooper  Hewitt. . . 

1901 

1901 

M.  Santos-Dumont . 

Deering  Harvester  Co. . 

1901 

Denny  &  Brothers . 

1902 

1902 

1903 

1903 

1903-6 

Various . 

1905 

I.  A.  Fessenden . 

1905 

1903-5 

Paul  L.  T.  Heroult . 

Luther  Burbank . 

1905 

1905 

Nativity. 


Germany 


U.S. 


France 
U.  S. 

England 


U.  S. 

Germany 
Various 
U.  S. 
France 
U.  S. 
Swiss 
and 
Italian 
England 


SOME  DISTINGUISHED  AMERICAN  INVENTORS. 


Benjamin  Franklin;  b.  Boston.  1706;  d.  1790;  at  12,  printer’s  apprentice,  fond  of  useful 
reading;  27  to  40,  teaches  himself  Latin,  etc.,  makes  various  useful  improvements;  at  40, 
studies  electricity;  1752,  brings  electricity  from  clouds  by  kite,  and  invents  the  lightning  rod. 

Eli  Whitney,  inventor  of  the  cotton-gin;  b.  Westborough,  Mass.,  1765;  d.  1825;  went  to 
Georgia  1792  as  teacher;  1793,  invents  the  cotton-gin,  prior  to  which  a  full  day’s  work  of  one 
person  was  to  clean  by  hand  one  pound  of  cotton;  one  machine  performs  the  labor  of  five 
thousand  persons;  1800,  founds  Whitneyville,  makes  firearms,  by  the  interchangeable 
system  for  the  parts. 

Robert  Fulton;  b.  Little  Britain,  Pa.,  1765;  d.  1825;  artist  painter;  invents  steamboat 
1793;  invents  submarine  torpedoes  1797  to  1801;  builds  steamboat  in  France  1803;  launches 
passenger  boat  Clermont  at  N.  Y.  1807,  and  steams  to  Albany;  1812,  builds  steam  ferryboats; 
1814,  builds  first  steam  war  vessel. 

Jethro  Wood,  inventor  of  the  modern  cast-iron  plow;  b.  White  Creek,  N.  Y.,  1774;  d.  1834; 
patented  the  plow  1814;  previously  the  plow  was  a  stick  of  wood  plated  with  iron;  lawsuits 
against  infringers  consumed  his  means;  Secretary  Seward  said:  “No  man  has  benefited 
the  country  pecuniarily  more  than  Jethro  Wood,  and  no  man  has  been  as  inadequately 
rewarded.” 

Thomas  Blanchard;  b.  1788,  Sutton,  Mass.;  d.  1864;  invented  tack  machine  1806;  builds 
successful  steam  carriage  1825;  builds  the  stern-wheel  boat  for  shallow  waters,  now  in  com¬ 
mon  use  on  Western  rivers;  1843,  patents  the  lathe  for  turning  irregular  forms,  now  in  com¬ 
mon  use  all  over  the  world  for  turning  lasts,  spokes,  axe-handles,  gun-stocks,  hat-blocks, 
tackle-blocks,  etc. 

Ross  Winans,  of  Baltimore;  b.  1798,  N.  J. ;  author  of  many  inventions  relating  to  railways; 
first  patent,  1828;  he  designed  and  patented  the  pivoted,  double  truck,  loDg  passenger  cars 
now  in  common  use.  His  genius  also  assisted  the  development  of  railways  in  Russia. 

Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  inventor  of  harvesting  machines;  b.  Walnut  Grove,  Va.,  1809;  in 
1851  he  exhibited  his  invention  at  the  World's  Fair,  London,  with  practical  success.  The 
mowing  of  one  acre  was  one  man’s  day’s  work;  a  boy  with  a  mowing  machine  now  cuts  10 
acres  a  day.  Mr.  McCormick’s  patents  made  him  a  millionaire. 


From  the  Scientific  American  Reference  Book,  copyright,  by  permission. 


278  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Charles  Goodyear,  inventor  and  patentee  of  the  simple  mixture  of  rubber  and  sulphur, 
the  basis  of  the  present  great  rubber  industries  throughout  the  world;  b.  New  Haven,  Conn., 
1800;  in  1839,  by  the  accidental  mixture  of  a  bit  of  rubber  and  sulphur  on  a  red-hot  stove,  he 
discovered  the  process  of  vulcanization.  The  Goodyear  patents  proved  immensely  profitable. 

Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  inventor  and  patentee  of  electric  telegraph;  b.  Charlestown,  Mass., 
1791;  d.  1872;  artist  painter;  exhibited  first  drawings  of  telegraph  1832;  half-mile  wire  in 
operation  1835;  caveat  1837;  Congress  appropriated  $30,000  and  in  1844  first  telegraph  line 
from  Washington  to  Baltimore  was  opened;  after  long  contests  the  courts  sustained  his 
patents  and  he  realized  from  them  a  large  fortune. 

Elias  Howe,  inventor  of  the  modern  sewing  machine;  b.  Spencer,  Mass.,  1819;  d.  1867; 
machinist;  sewing  machine  patented  1846;  from  that  time  to  1854  his  priority  was  contested 
and  he  suffered  from  poverty,  when  a  decision  of  the  courts  in  his  favor  brought  him  large 
royalties,  and  he  realized  several  millions  from  his  patent. 

James  B.  Eads;  b.  1820;  author  and  constructor  of  the  great  steel  bridge  over  the 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis,  1867,  and  the  jetties  below  New  Orleans,  1876.  His  remarkable 
energy  was  shown  in  1861  when  he  built  and  delivered  complete  to  the  Government,  all 
within  sixty-five  days,  seven  iron-plated  steamers,  600  tons  each;  subsequently  other 
steamers.  Some  of  the  most  brilliant  successes  of  the  Union  arms  were  due  to  his  extra¬ 
ordinary  rapidity  in  constructing  these  vessels. 

Prof.  Joseph  Henry;  b.  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1799;  d.  1878;  in  1828  invented  the  present  form  of 
the  electro-magnet  which  laid  the  foundation  for  practically  the  entire  electrical  art  and  is 
probably  the  most  important  single  contribution  thereto.  In  1831  he  demonstrated  the 
practicability  of  the  electric  current  to  effect  mechanical  movements  and  operate  signals 
at  a  distant  point,  which  was  the  beginning  of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph;  he  devised 
a  system  of  circuits  and  batteries,  which  contained  the  principle  of  the  relay  and  local 
circuit,  and  also  invented  one  of  the  earliest  electro-magnetic  engines.  He  made  many 
scientific  researches  in  electricity  and  general  physics  and  left  many  valuable  papers 
thereon.  In  1826  he  was  a  professor  in  the  Albany  Academy;  was  Professor  of  Natural 
Philosophy  at  the  College  of  New  Jersey  in  183<,  and  in  1846  was  chosen  secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington,  where  lie  remained  until  his  death.  Prof.  Henry 
was  probably  the  greatest  of  American  physicists. 

Dr.  Alexander  Graham  Bell,  the  inventor  of  the  telephone;  b.  1847  at  Edinburgh,  Scot¬ 
land,  moved  to  Canada  1872  and  afterward  to  Boston;  here  he  became  widely  known  as  an 
instructor  in  phonetics  and  as  an  authority  in  teaching  the  deaf  and  dumb;  in  1873  he 
began  the  study  of  the  transmission  of  musical  tones  by  telegraph;  in  1876  he  invented  and 
patented  the  speaking  telephone,  which  has  become  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  nineteenth 
*  century  and  one  of  the  greatest  commercial  enterprises  of  the  world;  in  1880  the  French 
Government  awarded  him  the  Yolta  prize  of  $10,000,  and  he  has  subsequently  received  the 
ribbon  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  from  France  and  many  honorary  degrees,  both  at  home  and 
abroad;  Dr.  Bell  still  continues  his  scientific  work  at  his  home  in  Washington  and  has  made 
valuable  contributions  to  the  phonograph  and  aerial  navigation. 

[Prof.  Bell  is  now  generally  known  as  Dr.  Bell,  out  of  respect  for  his  honorary  degree.] 

Thomas  A.  Edison;  b.  1847,  at  Milan,  Ohio;  from  a  poor  boy  in  a  country  village,  with  a 
limited  education,  he  has  become  the  most  fertile  inventor  the  world  has  ever  known;  his 
most  important  inventions  are  the  phonograph  in  1877,  the  incandescent  electric  lamp, 
1878;  the  quadruplex  telegraph,  1874-1878;  the  electric  pen  1876;  magnetic  ore  separator, 
1880,  and  the  three-wire  electric  circuit,  1883;  his  first  patent  was  an  electric  vote-recording 
machine,  taken  in  1869,  since  which  time  more  than  700  patents  have  been  granted  him; 
early  in  life  Edison  started  to  run  a  newspaper,  but  his  genius  lay  in  the  field  of  electricity, 
where  as  an  expert  telegrapher  he  began  his  great  reputation;  his  numerous  inventions 
have  brought  him  great  wealth;  a  fine  villa  in  Llewellyn  Park,  at  Orange,  N.  J.,  is  his 
home,  and  his  extensive  laboratory  near  by  is  still  the  scene  of  his  constant  work;  he  is 
the  world’s  most  persevering  inventor. 

Captain  John  Ericsson;  b.  1803  in  Sweden;  d.  in  New  York,  1889;  at  ten  years  of  age, 
designed  a  sawmill  and  a  pumping  engine;  made  and  patented  many  inventions  in  Eng¬ 
land  in  early  life;  in  1829  entered  a  locomotive  in  competition  with  Stephenson’s  Rocket; 
in  1836  patented  in  England  his  double-screw  propeller  and  shortly  after  came  to  the 
United  States  and  incorporated  it  in  a  steamer;  in  1861,  built  for  theUnited  States  Govern¬ 
ment  the  turret  ironclad  Monitor;  was  the  inventor  of  the  hot-air  engine  which  bears  his 
name;  also  a  torpedo  boat  which  was  designed  to  discharge  a  torpedo  by  means  of  com¬ 
pressed  air  beneath  the  water;  he  was  an  indefatigable  worker  and  made  many  other 
inventions;  his  diary,  kept  daily  for  40  years,  comprehended  14,000  pages. 

Charles  F.  Brush;  b.  near  Cleveland,  Ohio,  1849;  prominently  identified  with  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  dynamo,  the  arc  light  and  the  storage  battery,  in  which  fields  he  made  many 
important  inventions;  in  1880  the  Brush  Company  put  its  electric  lights  into  New  York 
City  and  has  since  extended  its  installations  into  most  of  the  cities  and  towns  of  the 
United  States;  in  1881,  at  the  Paris  Electrical  Exposition,  he  received  the  ribbon  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor. 

George  Westinghouse,  Jr.;  b.  at  Central  Bridge,  N.  Y.,  1846;  while  still  a  boy  he  modeled 
and  built  a  steam  engine;  his  first  profitable  invention  was  a  railroad  frog;  his  most  notable 
inventions,  however,  were  in  railroad  airbrakes,  the  first  patents  for  which  were  taken  out 
in  1872;  the  system  now  known  by  his  name  has  grown  to  almost  universal  adoption  and 
constitutes  a  great  labor-saving  and  life-saving  adjunct  to  railroad  transportation;  Mr. 
Westinghouse,  whose  home  is  at  Pittsburg,  was  one  of  the  earliest  to  develop  and  use 
natural  gas  from  deep  wells;  in  late  years  he  has  made  and  patented  many  inventions  in 
electrical  machinery  for  the  development  of  power  and  light,  and  has  commercially  devel¬ 
oped  the  same  on  a  large  scale. 


SOME  STATISTICS  ABOUT  INVENTIONS 


279 


Ottmar  Mergen thaler;  b.  1854,  at  Wiirtemberg,  Germany;  d.  1899;  inventor  of  the  lino¬ 
type  machine;  his  early  training  as  a  watch  and  clock  maker  well  fitted  him  for  the  pains¬ 
taking  and  complicated  work  of  his  life,  which  was  to  make  a  machine  which  would  mold 
the  type  and  set  it  up  in  one  operation;  in  1872  Mergenthaler  came  to  Baltimore  and 
entered  a  machine  shop,  in  which  he  subsequently  became  a  partner;  the  first  linotype 
machine  was  built  in  188(1  and  put  to  use  in  the  composing  room  of  the  New  York  Tribune; 
to-day  all  large  newspaper  and  publishing  houses  are  equioped  with  great  batteries  of 
these  machines,  costing  over  $3,000  each,  and  each  performing  the  work  of  five  compositors. 

William  Painter,  b.  1838,  d.  1906;  was  one  of  the  most  prolific  inventors  in  the  world. 
He  was  the  recipient  of  nearly  100  United  States  patents,  to  say  nothing  of  their  foreign 
offspring.  He  was  best  known,  however,  as  the  inventor  of  the  crown  cork,  the  loop  seal, 
and  the  aluminum  system  of  bottle  sealing  and  all  the  machinery  employed  in  their  manu¬ 
facture,  and  was  secretary  and  general  manager  of  the  Crown  Cork  &  Sealing  Company 
until  1903.  This  company  has  factories  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Loring  Coes,  b.  1812,  Worcester,  Mass.;  d.  1906;  inventor  of  the  hand  screw  wrench  which 
bears  his  name.  As  many  as  6,000  to  9,000  of  these  wrenches  are  manufactured  monthly. 

Daniel  Baird  Wesson,  b.  Worcester,  Mass.,  1825;  d.  1906;  began  life  on  a  farm;  afterwards 
worked  at  shoe-pegging.  He  always  wished  to  learn  gun-making  and  learned  the  trade 
under  his  brother.  "  A  practical  cartridge  was  the  earliest  fruit,  of  his  inventive  mind.  This 
did  away  with  percussion  caps.  Then  fie  secured  a  patent  for  a  steel  disk  on  which  the 
hammer  could  explode  the  percussion  material,  doing  away  with  the  primer.  It  was  in 
working  out  this  plan  that  Mr.  Wesson  became  associated  with  the  late  Horace  Smith,  and 
the  world- recognized  firm  of  Smith  &  Wesson  was  formed. 


SOME  STATISTICS  ABOUT  INVENTIONS. 


The  first  recorded  patent  granted  by  the  United  States  Government  bears  date  July  31, 
1790,  issued  to  Samuel  Hopkins,  for  making  pot  and  pearl  ashes.  Two  other  patents  were 
granted  in  that  year.  In  the  following  year,  1791,  thirty-three  patents  were  granted. 
Among  them  were  six  patents  to  James  Rumsay  and  one  to  John  Fitch  for  inventions  relat¬ 
ing  to  steam  engines  and  steam  vessels.  For  the  single  year  of  1876  the  number  of  patents 
and  caveats  applied  for  was  almost  20,000. 

Since  July  28, 1836,  667,173  patents  for  inventions,  and  since  1842  34,018  patents  for  designs 
have  been  issued  by  this  office.  Many  of  these  patents  are  for  minor  improvements,  but 
among  them  may  be  found  a  very  large  number  covering  the  most  remarkable  and  valu¬ 
able  inventions,  which  have  added  untold  sums  to  the  world’s  wealth,  revolutionized  the  old 
arts,  created  new  ones,  brought  old  time  luxuries  within  the  reach  of  all,  and  made  life 
doubly  worth  living.  These  contributions  have  come  from  men  and  women,  white  and 
colored.  To  many  inventors  more  than  a  hundred  patents  have  been  issued.  The  following 
are  some  of  the  inventors  who  have  received  more  than  that  number  between  1872  and  1900, 
both  yeai's  inclusive  : 


Thomas  A.  Edison .  742 

Francis  H.  Richards .  619 

Elihu  Thomson .  444 

Charles  E.  Scribner .  374 

Luther  C.  Crowell . 293 

Edward  Weston . 280 

Rudolph  M.  Hunter . 276 

Charles  J.  Van  Depoele  (deceased) . 245 

George  Westinghouse . 239 

John  W.  Hyatt . 209 

Freeborn  F.  Raymond,  2d.  - .  182 

Sydney  H.  Short .  178 

Rudolph  Eickemeyer  (deceased) .  171 

Milo  G.  Kellogg .  159 

Walter  Scott .  156 

Arthur  J.  Moxham .  150 

Cyrus  W.  Saladee .  < . . .  148 

Louis  Goddu .  146 

Hiram  S.  Maxim .  146 

George  D.  Burton .  144 


Lewis  H.  Nash .  142 

Edwin  Norton .  141 

Abbot  Augustus  Low .  137 

Philip  Diehl .  137 

James  C.  Anderson .  135 

Edward  J.  Brooks .  133 

Elmer  A.  Sperry .  132 

Peter  K.  Dederick .  128 

Hosea  W.  Libbey .  127 

James  F.  McElroy .  121 

William  N.  Whiteley .  121 

Horace  Wyman .  118 

Frank  Rhind . 117 

Louis  K.  Johnson..... .  114 

Warren  H.  Taylor . ‘ .  U2 

James  M.  Dodge .  HI 

George  H.  Reynolds .  U0 

Talbot  C.  Dexter .  109 

James  H.  Northrop .  102 


From  1790  to  March  1,  1895.  some  5,535  patents  Avere  granted  to  women.  It  is  a  fair  esti¬ 
mate  that  out  of  every  1,000  patents  one  is  granted  to  a  woman.  Asa  rule  women  take 
out  but  one  patent,  although  there  are  many  exceptions.  While  the  majority  or  patents 
granted  them  are  for  improvements  in  wearing  apparel  and  in  articles  tor  household  use, 
they  have  invented  and  received  patents  for  adding  machines,  windmills,  horseshoes, 
agricultural  implements  and  fire  escapes. 


From  the  Scientific  American  Reference  Book,  copyright,  by  permission. 


280  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


To  some  165  colored  inventors  about  400  patents  have  been  issued.  Twenty-eight  patents 
have  been  issued  to  one  and  to  another  22.  So  far  as  the  records  show,  Henry  Blair,  of 
Maryland,  was  the  first  colored  patentee.  In  1834  he  received  a  patent  for  a  corn  planter, 
and  in  1836  one  for  a  cotton  planter.  The  character  of  their  inventions  follows  lines  sug¬ 
gested  by  their  employment.  Employed  in  the  field  and  in  the  house,  improvements  in 
agricultural  implements  and  articles  of  domestic  use  predominate.  The  sphere  of  their 
inventive  effort  has  widened  with  the  added  opportunities  afforded  them  to  engage  in 
mechanical  vocations.  They  have  made  contributions  to  the  electric  arts  and  steam 
engineering,  and  many  improvements  in  railway  appliances  and  paper-bag  machines. 
Before  the  Civil  War  the  master  of  a  slave  living  in  Mississippi  made  application  for 
a  patent,  but  the  Attorney-General  held  in  an  opinion  reported  in  vol.  9,  Attorney- 
General’s  Opinions,  page  171,  that  an  invention  of  a  slave,  though  it  be  new  and  useful, 
could  not  be  patented. 


FIRST  STEAMBOATS,  PIONEER  SAILING,  AND 

EARLIEST  LINES. 


1707.  Denis  Papin  experimented  on  River 
Fulda  with  paddle-wheel  steamboat. 

1736.  Jonathan  Hulls  patented  designs 
similar  to  modern  paddle  boat. 

1769.  James  Watt  invented  a  double-acting 
side-lever  engine. 

1783.  Marquess  of  Jouffrey  made  experi¬ 
ments  in  France. 

1785.  James  Ramsey,  in  America,  propelled 
a  boat  with  steam  through  a  stern-pipe. 

1785.  Robert  Fitch,  in  America,  propelled 
a  boat  with  canoe-paddles  fixed  to  a  moving 
beam. 

1787.  Robert  Miller,  of  Edinburgh,  tried 
primitive  manual  machinery. 

1788.  Miller,  with  Symington,  produced  a 
double-hull  stern-wheel  steamboat. 

1802.  Charlotte  Dundas,  the  first  practical 
steam  tugboat,  designed  by  Symington. 

1804.  Phoenix ,  screw -boat  designed  by 
Stephens  in  New  York;  first  steamer  to  make 
a  sea  voyage. 

1807.  Clermont ,  first  passenger  steamer 
continuously  employed;  built  by  Fulton  in 
U.  S.  A. 

1812.  Comet ,  first  passenger  steamer  con¬ 
tinuously  employed  in  Europe;  built  by 
Miller  in  Scotland. 

1818.  Rob  Roy ,  first  sea-trading  steamer  in 
the  world,  built  at  Glasgow. 

1819.  Savannah ,  first  auxiliary  steamer, 
paddle  wheels,  to  cross  the  Atlantic;  built  in 
New  York. 

1821,  Aaron  Manby ,  first  steamer  (Eng¬ 
lish  canal  boat)  built  of  iron. 

1823.  City  of  Dublin  Steam  Packet  Co.  was 
established. 

1824.  General  Steam  Navigation  Co.  was 
established  at  London. 

1824.  George  Thompson  &  Co.  (Aberdeen 
Line),  were  established. 

1825.  Enterprise  made  the  first  steam 
passage  to  India. 

1825.  William  Fa  wcett ,  pioneer  steamer  of 
the  P.  &  O.  S.  N.  Co. 

1830.  T.  &  J.  Harrison  (Harrison  Line) 
were  established  at  Liverpool. 

1832.  Elburlcah ,  iron  steamer,  took  a  pri¬ 
vate  exploring  party  up  the  Niger. 

1834.  Lloyd’s  Register  for  British  and 
Foreign  Shipping  established. 

1836.  Austrian  Lloyd  Steam  Navigation 
Co.  established  at  Trieste. 


1837.  Francis  B.  Ogden ,  first  successful 
screw  tugboat;  fitted  with  Ericsson’s  pro¬ 
peller. 

1838.  Archimedes ,  made  the  Dover-Calais 
passage  under  two  hours,  fitted  with  Smith’s 
propeller. 

1838.  R.  F.  Stochton,  built  for  a  tugboat, 
fitted  with  Ericsson’s  propeller,  sailed  to 
America;  first  iron  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlan¬ 
tic;  first  screw  steamer  used  in  America. 

1839.  Thames ,  pioneer  steamer  of  the 
Royal  Mail  Steam  Packet  Co. 

1839.  George  Smith  &  Sons  (City  Line) 
were  established  at  Glasgow. 

1810,  Britannia ,  pioneer  steamer  of  the 
Cunard  Line. 

1840.  Chile ,  pioneer  steamer  of  the  Pacific 
Steam  Navigation  Co. 

1845.  Great  Britain ,  first  iron  screw 
steamer,  precursor  of  modern  Atlantic 

stf*cini6r 

1845.  Thos.  Wilson,  Sons  &  Co.,  Ltd.  (Wil¬ 
son  Line),  established  at  Hull. 

1847.  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Co.  estab¬ 
lished  in  America. 

1849.  Houlder  Brothers  &  Co.  established 
at  London. 

1850,  Billiard,  King  &  Co.  (Natal  Line) 
established  at  London. 

1850.  Messageries  Maritimes  de  France 
established. 

1850.  Inman  (now  American)  Line,  estab¬ 
lished  at  Liverpool. 

1851.  Tiber ,  first  steamer  of  the  Bibby 
Line,  established  1821  at  Liverpool. 

1852.  Forerunner ,  pioneer  steamer  of  the 
African  Steamship  Co. 

1853.  Union  Steamship  Co.  was  established 
(now  Union-Castle  Line.) 

1853.  Borussia ,  first  steamer  of  the  Ham- 
burg-American  Packet  Co.  established  1847. 

1854.  Canadian ,  first  steamer  of  the  Allan 
Line,  established  1820. 

1855.  British  India  Steam  Navigation  Co. 
was  established. 

1856.  Tempest ,  first  steamer  Anchor  Line. 

1858.  Bremen ,  first  Atlantic  steamer  of  the 

Norddeutscher  Lloyd,  established  1856. 

1858.  Great  Eastern  launched  into  the 
Thames.  Jan.  31;  commenced  May  1,  1854. 

1905.  First  Turbine  Atlantic  Liner  The 
Victorian ,  crossed  from  Liverpool  to 
Montreal. 


AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY. 


BY 

Archibald  Williams. 

WE  should  reasonably  expect  that  the  immense 
advance  made  in  mechanical  science  during 
the  last  century  should  have  left  a  deep  mark 
on  agricultural  appliances.  Such  an  expectation  is  more 
than  justified;  for  are  there  not  many  among  us  who  have 
seen  the  sickle  and  the  flail  at  work  where  now  the  66  self- 
binder  ”  and  threshing  machine  perform  the  same  duties 
in  a  fraction  of  the  time  formerly  required?  The  plough¬ 
man,  plodding  sturdily  down  the  furrow  behind  his  clever 
team,  is  indeed  still  a  common  sight;  but  in  the  tilling 
season  do  we  not  hear  the  snort  of  the  steam-engine,  as 
its  steel  rope  tears  a  six-furrow  plough  through  the 
mellow  earth?  When  the  harvest  comes  we  realize  even 
more  clearly  how  largely  machinery  lias  supplanted  man ; 
while  in  the  processes  of  separating  the  grain  from  its 
straw  the  human  element  plays  an  even  smaller  part.  It 
would  not  be  too  much  to  say  that,  were  we  to  revert  next 
year  to  the  practices  of  our  grandfathers,  we  should 
starve  in  the  year  following. 

The  firm  of  Messrs.  John  Fowler  &  Company,  of  Leeds, 
England,  is  most  intimately  connected  with  the  introduc¬ 
tion  of  the  steam  plough  and  cultivator.  Their  first  type 
of  outfit  included  one  engine  only,  the  traversing  of  the 
plough  across  the  field  being  effected  by  means  of  cables 
passing  round  a  pulley  on  a  low,  four-wheeled  truck, 
moved  along  the  opposite  edge  of  the  field  by  ropes  drag¬ 
ging  on  an  anchor.  Another  method  was  to  have  the 
engine  stationary  at  one  corner  of  the  field,  and  an  anchor 
at  each  of  the  three  other  corners,  the  two  at  the  ends  of 
the  furrow  being  moved  for  every  journey  of  the  plough. 
In,  or  about,  the  year  1865  this  arrangement  succumbed 

From  “  The  Romance  of  Modern  Mechanism.”  London. 

281 


282 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


to  the  simple  and,  as  it  now  seems  to  ns,  obvious  improve¬ 
ment  of  introducing  a  second  engine  to  progress  vis-a-vis 
with  the  first,  and  do  its  share  of  the  pulling.  The  modern 
eight-furrow  steam  plough  will  turn  ten  acres  a  day 
quite  easily,  at  a  much  lower  cost  than  that  of  horse 
labor.  For  tearing  up  land  after  a  crop  “  cultivators  ” 
are  sometimes  used.  They  have  arrowhead-shaped 
coulters,  which  cut  very  deep  and  bring  large  quantities 
of  fresh  earth  to  the  surface. 

The  ground  is  now  pulverized  by  harrows  of  various 
shapes,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  crop  to  be  sown. 
English  farmers  generally  employ  the  spike  harrow ;  but 
American  agriculturists  make  great  use  of  the  spring- 
tooth  form,  which  may  best  be  described  as  an  arrange¬ 
ment  of  very  strong  springs  much  resembling  in  outline 
the  springs  of  house  bells.  The  shorter  arm  is  attached 
to  the  frame,  while  the  longer  and  pointed  arm  tears  the 
earth. 

In  highly  civilized  countries  the  man  carrying  a  basket 
from  which  he  flings  seeds  broadcast  is  a  very  rare  sight 
indeed.  The  primitive  method  may  have  been  effective  — 
a  good  sower  could  cover  an  acre  evenly  with  half  a  pint 
of  turnip  seed  —  but  very  slowly.  We  now  use  a  long  bin 
mounted  on  wheels,  which  revolves  discs  inside  the  bin, 
furnished  with  tiny  spoons  round  the  periphery  to  scoop 
small  quantities  of  seed  into  tubes  terminating  in  a 
coulter.  The  farmer  is  thus  certain  of  having  evenly 
planted  and  parallel  rows  of  grain,  which  in  the  early 
spring,  when  the  sprouting  begins,  make  so  pleasant  an 
addition  to  the  landscape. 

The  “  corn,”  or  maize,  crop  of  the  United  States  is  so 
important  that  it  demands  special  sowing  machinery, 
which  plants  single  grains  at  intervals  of  about  eighteen 
inches.  A  somewhat  similar  device  is  used  for  planting 
potatoes. 

Passing  over  the  weeding  machines,  which  offer  no 
features  of  particular  interest,  we  come  to  the  reaping 
machines,  on  which  a  vast  amount  of  ingenuity  has  been 
expended.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the 


AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY 


283 


Royal  Agricultural  Society  of  Great  Britain  offered  a 
prize  for  the  introduction  of  a  really  useful  machine 
which  should  replace  the  scythe  and  sickle.  Several 
machines  were  brought  out,  but  they  did  not  prove  prac¬ 
tical  enough  to  attract  much  attention.  Cyrus  H.  Mc¬ 
Cormick  invented  the  reaper  in  1831,  which,  with  very 
many  improvements  added,  is  to-day  employed  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  The  most  noticeable  point  of  this 
machine  was  the  bar  furnished  with  a  row  of  triangular 
blades  which  passed  very  rapidly  to  and  fro  through  slots 
in  an  equal  number  of  sharp  steel  points,  against  which 
they  cut  the  grain.  The  to-and-fro  action  of  the  cutter- 
blade  was  produced  by  a  connecting-rod  working  on  a 
crank  rotated  by  the  wheels  carrying  the  machine. 

The  first  McCormick  reaper  did  wonders  on  a  Vir¬ 
ginian  farm;  other  inventors  were  stimulated;  and  in 
1833,  there  appeared  the  Hussey  reaper,  built  on  some¬ 
what  similar  lines.  For  twelve  years  or  so  these  two 
machines  competed  against  one  another  all  over  the 
United  States;  and  then  McCormick  added  a  raker  at¬ 
tachment,  which,  when  sufficient  grain  had  accumulated 
on  the  platform,  enabled  a  second  man  on  the  machine  to 
sweep  it  off  to  be  tied  up  into  a  sheaf.  At  the  Great  Ex¬ 
hibition  held  in  London  in  1851,  the  judges  awarded  a 
special  medal  to  the  inventor,  reporting  that  the  whole 
expense  of  the  Exhibition  would  have  been  well  recouped 
if  only  the  reaper  were  introduced  into  England.  From 
France  McCormick  received  the  decoration  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor  “  for  having  done  more  for  the  cause  of  agri¬ 
culture  than  any  man  then  living.” 

It  would  be  reasonable  to  expect  that,  after  this  public 
recognition,  the  mechanical  reaper  would  have  been  im¬ 
mediately  valued  at  its  true  worth.  “  Yet  no  man  had 
more  difficulty  in  introducing  his  machines  than  that 
pioneer  inventor  of  agricultural  implements.  Farmers 
everywhere  were  slow  to  accept  it,  and  manufacturers 
were  unwilling  to  undertake  its  manufacture.  Even  after 
the  value  of  the  machine  had  been  demonstrated,  every¬ 
one  seemed  to  fear  that  it  would  break  down  on  rocky 
Vol.  IV  — 17 


284  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

and  uneven  fields;  and  the  inventor  had  to  demonstrate 
in  person  to  the  farmers  the  practicability  of  the  reapers, 
and  then  even  guarantee  them  before  the  money  could  be 
obtained.  Through  all  these  trying  discouragements 
the  persistent  inventor  passed  before  he  saw  any  reward 
for  the  work  that  he  had  spent  half  a  lifetime  in  perfect¬ 
ing.  The  ultimate  triumph  of  the  inventor  may  be  suffi¬ 
cient  reward  for  his  labors  and  discouragements,  but 
those  who  would  begrudge  him  the  wealth  that  he  subse¬ 
quently  made  from  his  invention  should  consider  some  of 
the  difficulties  and  obstacles  he  had  to  overcome  in  the 
beginning.  ’ n 

In  1858  an  attachment  was  fitted  to  replace  the  second 
passenger  on  the  machine.  Four  men  followed  behind  to 
tie  up  the  grain  as  it  was  shot  off  the  machine. 

Inventors  tried  to  abolish  the  need  for  these  extra 
hands  by  means  of  a  self-binding  device. 

A  practical  method,  employing  wire,  appeared  in  1860; 
but  so  great  was  the  trouble  caused  by  stray  pieces  of  the 
wire  getting  into  threshing  and  other  machinery  through 
which  the  grain  subsequently  passed  that  farmers  went 
back  to  hand  work,  until  the  Appleby  patent  of  1873  re¬ 
placed  wire  by  twine.  Words  alone  would  convey  little 
idea  of  how  the  corn  is  collected  and  encircled  with  twine ; 
how  the  knot  is  tied  by  an  ingenious  shuttle  mechanism ; 
and  how  it  is  thrown  out  into  a  set  of  arms  which  collect 
sufficieut  sheaves  to  form  a  “  stook2  ”  before  it  lets  them 
fall.  So  we  would  advise  our  readers  to  take  the  next 
chance  of  examining  a  modern  self-binder,  and  to  per¬ 
suade  the  man  in  charge  to  give  as  lucid  an  explanation 
as  he  can  of  the  way  in  which  things  are  done. 

Popular  prejudice  having  once  been  conquered,  the 
success  of  the  reapers  was  assured.  The  year  1870  saw 
60,000  in  use ;  by  1885  the  output  had  increased  to  250,000 ; 
and  to-day  the  manufacture  of  agricultural  labor-saving 
machines  gives  employment  to  over  200,000  people;  an 
equal  number  being  occupied  in  their  transport  and  sale 
in  all  parts  of  the  globe. 

1  Gassier’ s  Magazine.  2  A  u  stook  ”  in  England  is  12  sheaves. 


AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY 


285 


In  California,  perhaps  more  than  in  any  other  country, 
“  power  ”  agricultural  machinery  is  seen  at  its  best. 
Great  traction  engines  here  take  the  place  of  human  labor 
to  an  extraordinary  extent.  The  largest,  of  50  li.  p.  and 
upwards,  “  with  driving-wheels  60  inches  in  diameter  and 
flanges  of  generous  width,  travel  over  the  uneven  surface 
of  the  grain  fields,  crossing  ditches  and  low  places,  and 
ascending  the  sides  of  steep  hills,  with  as  much  apparent 
ease  as  a  locomotive  rolls  along  its  steel  rails.  Such 
powerful  traction-engines,  or  ‘  automobiles  ’  as  they  are 
commonly  called,  are  capable  of  dragging  behind 
tli@m  sixteen  10-inch  ploughs,  four  6-foot  harrows, 
and  a  drill  and  seeder.  The  land  is  thus  ploughed, 
drilled,  and  seeded  all  at  one  time.  From  fifty  to 
seventy-five  acres  of  virgin  soil  can  thus  be  ploughed 
and  planted  in  a  single  day.  When  the  harvest  comes 
the  engines  are  again  brought  into  service,  and  the  crops 
that  would  ordinarily  defy  the  best  efforts  of  an  army  of 
workmen  are  garnered  quickly  and  easily.  The  giant 
harvester  is  hitched  to  the  traction-engine  in  place  of  the 
ploughs  and  harrows,  and  cuts,  binds,  and  stacks  the 
golden  wheat  from  seventy-five  acres  in  a  single  day. 
The  cutters  are  26  feet  wide,  and  they  make  a  clear  swathe 
across  the  field.  Some  of  them  thresh,  clean,  and  sack 
the  wheat  as  fast  as  it  is  cut  and  bound.  Other  trac¬ 
tion  engines  follow  to  gather  up  the  sacked  wheat,  and 
whole  train-loads  of  it  thus  move  across  the  fields  to  the 
granaries  or  railways  of  the  seaboard  or  interior.’ ’ 

For  “  dead  ripe  ”  crops  the  “  header  ”  is  often  used  in 
California.  Instead  of  being  pulled  it  is  pushed  by  mules, 
and  merely  cuts  off  the  heads,  leaving  the  straw  to  be 
trampled  down  by  the  animals  since  it  has  no  value. 
Swathes  as  wide  as  50  feet  are  thus  treated,  the  grain 
being  threshed  out  while  the  machine  moves. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful,  and  at  the  same  time  useful, 
crops  in  the  world  is  that  of  maize,  which  feeds  not  only 
vast  numbers  of  human  beings,  but  also  countless  flocks 
and  herds,  the  latter  eating  the  green  stalks  as  well  as 
the  ripened  grain.  The  United  States  alone  produced  no 


286 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


less  than  2,523,648,312  bushels  of  this  cereal  in  1902,  as 
against  987,000,000  bushels  of  wheat,  and  670,000,000 
bushels  of  barley.  Now,  maize  has  a  very  tough  stalk, 
often  10  feet  high  and  an  inch  thick,  which  cannot  be  cut 
with  the  ease  of  wheat  or  barley.  So  a  special  machine 
has  been  devised  to  handle  it.  The  row  of  corn  is  picked 
up,  if  fallen,  by  chains  furnished  with  projecting  spikes 
working  at  an  angle  to  the  perpendicular,  so  as  to  lift  and 
simultaneously  pull  back  the  stalks,  which  pass  into  a 
horizontal  V-shaped  frame.  This  has  a  broad  opening  in 
front,  but  narrow  towards  its  rear  end,  where  stationary 
sickles  fixed  on  either  side  give  the  stalk  a  drawing  cut 
before  it  reaches  the  single  knife  moving  to  right  and  left 
in  the  angle  of  the  V,  which  severs  the  stalk  completely. 
The  McCormick  machine  gathers  the  corn  in  vertical 
bundles,  and  ties  them  up  ready  for  the  “  shockers.’ ’ 

In  principal  threshing  machines  are  simple  enough. 
The  straw  and  grain  is  fed  into  a  slot  and  pulled  down 
between  a  toothed  rotating  drum  and  a  fixed  toothed  con¬ 
cave.  These  tear  out  the  grain  from  the  ear.  The 
former  falls  into  the  hopper  of  a  winnowing  and  riddling 
machine,  which  clears  it  from  dust  and  husks,  and  allows 
it  to  pass  to  a  hopper.  An  endless  chain  of  buckets 
carries  it  to  the  delivery  bins,  holding  just  one  sackful 
each,  which  when  full  discharge  the  grain  through  spouts 
into  the  receptacle  waiting  below  their  mouths.  An  auto¬ 
matic  counter  records  the  number  of  sackfuls  of  corn  that 
have  been  discharged,  so  that  dishonesty  on  the  part  of 
employees  becomes  practically  an  impossibility.  While 
the  grain  is  thus  treated,  oscillating  rakes  have  arranged 
the  straw  and  shaken  it  out  behind  in  a  form  convenient 
for  binding,  and  the  chaff  has  passed  to  its  proper  heap, 
to  be  used  as  fuel  for  the  engine  or  as  food  for  cattle. 

On  water,  rail,  and  road  the  petrol  engine  has  entered 
into  rivalry  with  steam  —  very  successfully  too.  And 
now  it  bids  fair  to  challenge  both  steam  engine  and  horse 
as  the  motive  power  for  agricultural  operations.  The 
motor  is  not  beautiful  to  look  upon ;  its  sides  are  slab,  its 
outlines  rather  suggestive  of  an  inverted  punt.  But  it 


HARVESTING  MACHINERY 
1.  Reaper  at  work  in  an  oat  field  in  Sweden. 


2.  Grain-binder  at  work  in  Portland,  Oregon. 


AGRICULTURAL  MACHINERY 


289 


is  a  willing  and  powerful  worker ;  requires  no  feeding  in 
the  early  hours  of  the  morning;  no  careful  brush  down 
after  the  day’s  work;  no  halts  to  ease  wearied  muscles. 
In  one  tank  is  petrol,  in  another  lubricating  oil,  in  a  third 
water  to  keep  the  cylinders  cool.  A  double-cylinder 
motor  of  18  h.p.  transmits  its  energy  through  a  large 
clutch  and  train  of  cogs  to  the  road  wheels,  made  extra 
wide  and  well  corrugated  so  that  they  shall  not  sink  into 
soft  ground  or  slip  on  hard.  There  is  a  broad  pully- 
wlieel  peeping  out  from  one  side  of  the  machine,  which 
is  ready  to  drive  chaff-cutters  or  threshers,  pump,  grind 
corn,  or  turn  a  dynamo  at  a  moment’s  notice. 

Hitch  the  ‘  ‘  Ivel  ”  on  to  a  couple  of  reapers  or  a  .three- 
furrow  plough,  and  it  soon  shows  its  superiority  to 
“  man’s  friend.”  Here  are  some  records: 

Eleven  acres,  one  rood,  thirteen  poles  of  wet  loam  land 
ploughed  in  17%  hours,  at  a  cost  per  acre  of  $1.25. 

Nineteen  acres  of  wheat  reaped  and  bound  in  10  hours, 
at  a  cost  of  44  cents  per  acre. 

Fifteen  acres,  three  roods  of  heavy  grass  cut  in  3% 
hours,  cost,  25  cents  per  acre. 

With  horses  the  average  cost  of  plowing  is  about  $2 
an  acre ;  of  reaping  $1.25.  So  that  the  motor  does  at  least 
twice  the  work  for  the  same  money. 

We  may  quote  a  paragraph  from  the  pen  of  “  Home 
Counties,”  a  well-known  and  perspicacious  writer  on 
agricultural  topics. 

“  It  is  because  motor-farming  is  likely  to  result  in  a 
more  thorough  cultivation  of  the  land  and  a  more  skillful 
and  more  enlightened  practice  of  agriculture,  and  not  in 
a  further  extension  of  those  deplorable  land-scratching 
and  acre-grasping  methods  of  which  so  many  pitiful  ex¬ 
amples  may  be  seen  on  our  clay  soils,  that  its  beginnings 
are  being  sympathetically  watched  by  many  people  who 
have  the  best  interests  of  the  rural  districts  and  the  pros¬ 
perity  of  agriculture  at  heart.”1 

In  France,  Germany,  Austria,  and  the  United  States 


1The  World’s  Work }  vol.  iii.  499. 


290  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

the  electric  motor  has  been  turned  to  agricultural  uses. 
Where  water-power  is  available  it  is  peculiarly  suitable 
for  stationary  work,  such  as  threshing,  chaff-cutting, 
root-slicing,  grinding,  etc.  The  current  can  be  easily  dis¬ 
tributed  all  over  a  large  farm  and  harnessed  to  portable 
motors.  Even  ploughing  has  been  done  with  electricity : 
the  energy  being  derived  either  from  a  steam  engine 
placed  near  by,  from  an  overhead  supply  parsing  to  the 
plough  through  trolley  arms  similar  to  those  used  on 
electric  cars. 

The  great  advances  made  recently  in  electrical  power 
transmission,  and  in  the  efficiency  of  the  electric  motor, 
bring  the  day  in  sight  when  on  large  properties  the  fields 
will  be  girt  about  by  cables  and  poles  as  permanent  fix¬ 
tures.  All  the  usual  agricultural  operations  of  plough¬ 
ing,  drilling,  and  reaping  will  then  be  independent  of 
horses,  or  of  steam  engines  panting  laboriously  on  the 
headlands.  In  fact,  the  experiment  has  been  tried  with 
success  in  the  United  States.  Whichever  way  we  look, 
Giant  Steam  is  bowing  before  a  superior  power 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD. 

BY 

Archibald  Williams. 

I.  THE  UNION  PACIFIC  RAILWAY  THE  FIRST  OF  THE  TRANS¬ 
CONTINENTALS. 

ANY  literary  work  that  deals  with  the  expansion  of 
the  United  States  can  no  more  avoid  references 
to  the  rise  of  the  great  railway  tracks  than  the 
traveler  can  get  from  point  to  point  without  calling  in 
the  aid  of  the  locomotive.  In  fact,  so  mightily  has  the 
invention  of  Trevethick  grown  and  prospered  under 
western  skies,  that  the  stories  of  the  railroad  and  the 


From  ‘  The  Romance  of  Modern  Locomotion.”  London. 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD 


231 


American  people  are  intertwined  in  a  manner  that  is 
without  parallel  in  any  other  country  of  the  world.  And 
the  same  enterprising  spirit  that  has  raised  the  United 
States  in  a  comparatively  short  time  to  a  foremost  place, 
both  industrially  and  politically,  among  the  nations,  has 
also  signalized  them  as  in  many  ways  the  scene  of  the 
most  marvelous  advances  in  the  science  and  practice  of 
mechanical  locomotion. 

A  glance  at  the  railway  map  of  the  United  States  will 
be  profitable  and  instructive  to  one  whose  knowledge  of 
the  geography  of  the  country  is  deprived  mainly  from 
the  dry  details  painfully  accumulated  in  the  school  class¬ 
room.  From  St.  Paul,  on  the  Mississippi,  the  Great 
Northern  reaches  across  to  Seattle,  on  Puget  Sound, 
.Washington.  One  hundred  and  fifty  miles  south,  on  one 
average,  runs  the  Northern  Pacific,  from  the  same  eastern 
terminus,  to  Portland,  Oregon  —  2,056  miles;  with  other 
divisions  and  branches  totalling  over  5,000  miles.  South 
of  that  again,  the  eye  follows  the  route  of  the  Chicago 
and  Milwaukee  from  Lake  Michigan  to  Omaha,  whence 
the  Union  Pacific  carries  it  on  to  Salt  Lake  City,  where 
in  turn  the  Southern  Pacific  rails  takes  up  the  running  to 
San  Francisco.  At  this  great  seaport  terminates  also  the 
Southern  Pacific  track  from  New  Orleans,  passing  through 
Louisiana,  Texas,  Arizona,  and  California,  in  a  mighty 
sweep  of  3,000  miles  or  more.  In  California  it  picks  up 
the  system  known  as  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe 
Railway,  which  in  the  heart  of  New  Mexico  throws  off 
a  branch  that  stretches  hundreds  of  miles  southwards 
towards  the  mouth  of  the  Gulf  of  California.  Besides 
these  main  lines  there  are  others,  too  manv  to  enumerate, 
though  scarcely  less  important,  which  form  links  in  the 
chief  arteries  of  transcontinental  traffic,  some  of  them 
working  in  open  rivalry  to  one  another. 

To-day  the  opening  of  such  a  line  is  a  comparatively 
peaceful  process ;  what  fighting  there  may  be  is  waged  in 
Congress  or  the  railway  office.  But  when  the  surveyors 
and  engineers  of  the  Union  Pacific  first  set  their  faces 
towards  the  prairies  the  railwayman  carried  his  life  in  his 


292  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

hand;  and  the  pick  and  shovel  had  to  do  their  work 
behind  the  protection  of  the  rifle  and  revolver.  The 
ancestors  of  the  Indian  who  now,  phlegmatic  and  half 
civilised,  watches  the  express  roar  past,  fought  hard 
against  the  men  who  came  out  into  the  prairies  with  flags 
and  chains  and  levels  as  the  precursors  of  the  greater 
army  following  behind  to  lay  a  path  for  the  iron  feet 
of  the  horse  that  would  outstrip  the  mustang  in  speed, 
the  buffalo  in  strength.  Thirsting  for  blood,  the  Sioux 
hung  round  the  camps,  and  awaited  the  opportunity  to 
add  one  more  item  to  the  cruel  record  of  the  quarrel 
between  red  man  and  white.  It  may  be  truly  said  that 
these  early  transcontinental  railways  were  in  parts  laid 
in  blood,  and  marked  by  the  lonely  graves  of  the  victims 
of  arrow  and  tomahawk. 

The  first  line  built  right  across  the  States  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Pacific  resulted  from  the  private  enter¬ 
prise  of  a  few  small  merchants  of  Sacramento,  Cali¬ 
fornia.  They,  in  1861,  organised  the  Central  Pacific  Rail¬ 
road  Company  (now  merged  into  the  Southern  Pacific)  to 
carry  the  metals  eastwards  to  the  limits  of  California, 
where  they  should  meet  the  platelayers  working  west¬ 
wards  from  the  Missouri,  over  the  track  now  known  as 
that  of  the  Union  Pacific  Company.  The  project  was 
formidable  enough,  including  as  it  did  the  crossing  of  the 
Sierras  at  an  elevation  of  7,000  feet  or  more,  and  a  plunge 
into  the  great  territory,  1,400  miles  long  and  1,300  miles 
wide,  which  as  late  as  1850  was  still  marked  as  “  un¬ 
explored  desert  ?  ’ ;  a  tract  so  unknown,  that  in  one 
stretch  of  665  miles  there  lived  but  one  white  man. 
The  cross-country  route  used  by  the  traders  was  not 
established  till  1860,  when  a  coaching  and  pony  ex¬ 
press  came  into  being.  The  coaches  —  often  laden  with 
gold-seekers  bound  for  the  Californian  fields  —  required, 
we  read,  “  1,000  horses,  500  mules,  and  700  men,  of  whom 

150  were  drivers . Travelers  by  this  overland 

route  had  not  only  to  face  blizzards  on  the  deserts,  to 
cut  their  way  through  snowdrifts,  to  cross  swollen 
streams,  and  to  endure  the  other  fatigues  and  privations 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD 


293 


inevitable  to  a  journey  over  deserts  and  mountains,  but 
they  had  to  run  the  risk  of  attacks  from  hostile  Indians, 
and  so  frequent  were  these  attacks  that  blood  is  said  to 
have  flowed  in  streams.”1 

The  Sacramento  merchants  found  support  in  the  public 
opinion  of  the  Eastern  States,  where  bright  dreams  were 
being  dreamed  of  the  great  possibilities  for  trade  with 
China  and  Eastern  Asia  that  would  be  opened  by  trans¬ 
continental  rails.  A  strong  feeling  was  also  forming 
itself  on  a  political  basis,  since  the  unsatisfactoriness  of 
the  isolation  of  the  Pacific  States  became  more  and  more 
apparent  in  the  unsettled  times  preceding  and  continuing 
throughout  the  Civil  War. 

A  bill  was  passed  through  Congress  in  July,  1862, 
assuring  both  the  Central  Pacific  and  Union  Pacific  of 
Government  support,  and  a  commencement  was  made  in 
the  same  year  at  the  Pacific  end.  Eastward,  matters  hung 
fire.  Money  was  “  tight,”  and  the  desert  did  not  seem 
very  attractive  either  to  capital  or  labor.  Consequently 
the  charter,  with  its  subsidy  and  land  grants,  fell  some¬ 
what  flat,  none  of  the  railroads  which,  as  President  Lin¬ 
coln  imagined,  would  be  benefited  by  the  scheme  coming 
forward  to  take  a  hand.  They  declared  that  they  saw  no 
prospects  in  a  railroad  across  the  desert.  Individuals 
made  desperate  efforts  to  collect  sufficient  capital  for  a 
beginning,  in  the  hope  that  when  once  things  had  been  set 
in  motion,  money  would  come  in.  But  to  little  purpose  ; 
and  not  till  after  the  passing  of  a  second  bill  in  1864, 
which  doubled  the  land  grant  and  offered  a  subsidy  of 
$16,000  to  $48,000  a  mile  of  track,  could  a  start  be  made 
at  the  Missouri  end. 

Among  the  engineers  of  the  line  was  one  Dodge,2  who, 
as  early  as  1853,  had  been  over  the  Iowa  and  Nebraska 
country,  surveying  and  looking  about  for  the  best  route 
for  a  railway.  On  more  occasions  than  one  he  found 
himself  in  danger  of  annihilation  by  the  Indians,  who 

1  The  Times,  April  10,  1903. 

2  Afterwards  General  Dodge,  and  a  prominent  railway  man. 


294  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

then  were  mighty  in  the  land.  He  pushed  up  the  Platte 
River  and  across  the  plains  as  far  as  the  Rockies,  and 
took  a  liking  for  “  South  Pass  ”  as  the  proper  gate  to 
a  terminus  on  the  Pacific,  which  he  fixed  at  Portland, 
Oregon.  In  an  interview  with  President  Lincoln  in  1863, 
he  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  Union  Pacific  should 
at  least  start  from  Omaha,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  MIs^ 
souri  opposite  Council  Bluffs. 

Here,  accordingly,  in  1864  the  first  ground  was  broken 
for  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  At  the  commencement 
operations  were  much  hampered  by  lack  of  transporta¬ 
tion,  as  no  railroad  as  yet  reached  the  Missouri  near 
Omaha,  and  all  material  had  to  be  brought,  at  enormous 
cost,  up  the  river  from  St.  Louis.  And  even  when  con¬ 
siderable  progress  had  been  made,  and  people  began  to 
talk  of  the  great  future  of  the  road,  the  granted  lands 
did  not  sell  well  enough  to  cover  current  expenses,  though 
the  subsidy  was  paid  as  soon  as  a  section  had  been  com¬ 
pleted.  The  Company  was  also  seriously  annoyed  by 
the  hostility  of  the  Indians.  These  were  ever  with  the 
surveyors  going  in  advance  of  the  construction  trains. 
Many  a  promising  young  engineer  found  a  grave  in  the 
prairie.  Nor  did  the  Sioux  hesitate  to  attack  the  plate¬ 
laying  gangs,  stealing  upon  them  under  cover  of  a  swell 
in  the  ground,  and,  before  help  could  come,  massacring 
them  to  a  man.  It  was  no  rare  thing  for  a  party  to  return 
at  nightfall  to  find  a  bunch  of  scalpless  corpses  where  in 
the  morning  they  had  left  a  busy  band  of  toiling  com¬ 
rades.  So  serious  were  the  losses  in  the  ranks,  that  it 
became  necessary  to  import  military  guards  to  watch  over 
the  navvies  as  they  struggled  with  ties  and  rails. 

Yet  the  “  rail-head  ”  gradually  crept  westward  across 
the  prairie.  In  1866,  260  miles  of  steel  bars  were  spiked 
down  to  the  sleepers;  and  by  the  end  of  the  following 
year  a  locomotive  could  run  540  miles  west  of  the  Mis¬ 
souri.  Nor  were  the  Central  Pacific  folk  idle.  They  had 
breasted  the  Sierras  and  prepared  for  the  attack  on  the 
desert  of  Utah,  where  the  Mormon  stronghold  of  Salt 
Lake  City  alone  had  beaten  back  the  desolation  of  that 


SOME  WONDERS  OE  THE  RAILROAD 


295 


rainless  country.  The  Government  subsidy,  far  heavier 
for  mountainous  than  level  stretches,  now  loomed  large 
before  the  eyes  of  both  parties.  Each  strove  for  the 
richer  share  of  the  spoil,  the  Central  Pacific  men  on  their 
slope,  and  the  Union  Pacific  on  the  western  flank  of  the 
Rockies.  In  the  last  lap  across  the  plains  the  going  was 
furious,  and  feeling  ran  so  high  that  jeven  when  the 
graders  working  in  advance  of  the  platelayers  met,  they 
continued  their  onward  course,  until  they  overlapped 
nearly  two  hundred  miles.  It  had  already  been  settled 
by  Congress,  however,  that  where  metals  met  metals, 
there  a  junction  should  be  effected;  and  this  happened 
at  Promontory  Point,  near  Ogden,  in  April,  1869.  On 
May  10,  in  the  presence  of  the  rival  armies  of  workers, 
and  of  a  few  outsiders  who  had  come  across  the  line  for 
the  purpose,  four  spikes,  two  of  silver,  two  of  gold,  were 
driven  home  to  complete  the  laying  of  the  rails.  A 
moment  later  the  glad  news  had  sped  across  the  “  whis¬ 
pering  galleries  ”  of  the  railroad,  and  in  Chicago,  New 
York,  and  Buffalo  public  thanksgivings  proclaimed  the 
opening  of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 

II.  THE  BUILDING  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  THE 
GREAT  CANADIAN  HIGHWAY. 

In  Canada,  as  in  the  United  States  and  Siberia,  the 
origin  of  the  first  transcontinental  line  was  political. 
As  long  ago  as  1847  Major  Carmichael  Smyth  urged 
upon  the  British  Government  the  necessity  of  a  great 
national  highway  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  to  sup¬ 
ply  the  last  link  in  the  chain  round  the  world,  uniting  the 
English  race  by  land  and  sea. 

The  Grand  Trunk  line  had  already  opened  communi¬ 
cation  by  rail  between  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  and  the 
United  States.  When,  in  1871,  British  Columbia  entered 
the  Confederation  of  Canadian  States,  it  was  felt  that 
mere  political  union  would  be  but  a  weak  bond,  unless 
ready  access  to  the  Pacific  seaboard  were  possible  from 


296  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

« 

the  older  provinces.  During  the  previous  year  the  difficulty 
of  quelling  Louis  Riel’s  rebellion  on  the  Red  River  —  only 
half-way  across  the  continent  —  on  account  of  the  lack  of 
means  of  transport,  had  brought  home  to  the  Government 
the  fact  that  without  a  railroad  the  remote  province  on 
the  Pacific  would  be  very  vulnerable  in  the  event  of  war. 
It  was  also  insisted,  on  the  part  of  Columbia,  that,  as  a 
condition  of  entering  the  Confederation,  a  railway  should 
be  thrown  right  across  Canada. 

The  carrying  out  of  so  gigantic  a  task  fell  upon  the 
Government,  and  the  Premier,  Sir  John  Macdonald, 
promised  that  the  line  should  be  completed  in  ten  years. 
On  July  20,  1871,  the  surveys  were  commenced  in  British 
Columbia,  as  they  had  already  been  on  other  portions  of 
the  route;  and  before  the  end  of  the  year  a  practicable 
line  had  been  discovered  over  the  whole  distance  from 
Lake  Superior  to  the  Pacific.  In  order  that  the  best  pos¬ 
sible  path  should  be  taken  by  the  rails  through  the  difficult 
country  of  the  Rocky,  Selkirk,  Gold,  and  Cascade  moun¬ 
tains  on  the  west,  and  the  Laurentian  ranges  round  Lake 
Superior,  the  surveyors  were  hard  at  work  for  the  next 
six  years,  on  a  task  that  cost  the  Canadian  Government 
$3,750,000.  Engineers  explored  the  mountain  passes  in  all 
directions,  experiencing  the  hardships  and  dangers  insep¬ 
arable  from  travel  in  wild,  icebound  country,  fissured  by 
huge  chasms,  along  the  side  of  which  they  had  to  creep, 
and  flanked  by  towering  peaks  that  hurled  down  devastat¬ 
ing  avalanches.  The  adventures  of  these  pioneers,  thrill¬ 
ing  and  varied,  are  enough  in  themselves  to  fill  a  book, 
and,  did  space  permit,  might  here  be  added  as  a  most  in¬ 
teresting  chapter  in  the  romance  of  the  railway. 

The  task  before  the  Government  was  as  follows  :  to  con¬ 
struct  2,500  miles  of  new  line,  650  of  which  —  between 
Ottawa  river  and  Port  Arthur,  on  Lake  Superior  —  lay 
through  a  district  notorious  for  its  unsuitability  for  rail¬ 
way  construction.  Prom  Lake  Superior  to  Winnipeg,  on 
the  Red  river,  the  country  was  also  difficult,  and  west  of 
Winnipeg  the  Prairie  section  stretched  900  miles  to  the 
Rocky  mountains,  a  territory  which,  so  far  from  being 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD 


297 


of  the  billiard-table  levelness  of  popular  imagination, 
contains  very  little  level  ground.  Tlie  west  mountain 
section,  through  the  Eockies  to  the  Pacific,  promised  to 
strain  the  resources  of  the  engineer  to  the  utmost. 

On  February  17,  1881,  the  Canadian  Pacific  Eailway 
Act  received  the  Eoyal  Assent,  and  the  Company  its 
charter.  For  the  fulfilment  of  the  contract,  over  400 
miles  of  rail  must  be  laid  each  year ;  and  in  order  to  make 
this  possible,  work  was  commenced  simultaneously  at 
several  points  —  on  Lake  Superior,  at  Ottawa,  and  at 
Winnipeg,  westwards,  and  from  the  Pacific  coast,  east¬ 
wards. 

The  Company’s  chief  energies  were  first  concentrated 
on  the  section  between  Winnipeg  and  Calgary  in  the 
Eocky  Mountains.  It  was  decided  to  abandon  the  route 
mapped  out  originally  by  the  Government  surveyors 
north  of  Lake  Manitoba  and  through  Edmonton  and  Pine 
Eiver  Pass,  and  to  follow  a  track  some  hundreds  of  miles 
further  south  through  the  Eockies ;  also  to  construct  the 
line  in  a  more  substantial  manner  than  the  contract 
required. 

The  earthwork  on  the  1  ‘  prairie  section  ’ 9  averaged 
some  17,000  cubic  yards  per  mile,  and,  in  order  to  avoid 
snow-block  as  far  as  possible,  the  railway  ran  along  em¬ 
bankments. 

Between  May  and  December  1881,  165  miles  were 
driven  west  from  Winnipeg.  The  following  year,  to 
quicken  operations,  a  contract  was  made  by  the  Company 
with  Messrs.  Langdon  &  Shepherd,  of  St.  Paul,  Minne¬ 
sota,  to  complete  the  line  to  Calgary.  The  contractors 
at  once  advertised  for  labor,  offering  $2.25  per  diem  to 
navvies,  and  $4.75  for  two  horses  and  a  driver.  They 
also  sublet  the  work  in  sections,  of  a  length  varying  with 
the  ability  and  means  of  the  contractor. 

A  vivid  account  given  of  the  work  on  this  section  in 
the  columns  of  Engineering  will  enable  the  reader  to  form 
some  idea  of  the  completeness  of  the  organization  re¬ 
quired  to  lay  500  miles  of  rail  in  a  single  year. 

“  The  rapidity  of  construction  of  this  section  of  the 


298 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


road  is  without  a  parallel  in  this  or  any  other  country. 
Where  there  was  neither  timber  nor  building  stone  all  the 
materials  had  to  be  transported  from  700  to  1,500  miles, 
and  even  the  food  and  the  commonest  necessaries  for  the 
consumption  of  the  men  and  the  horses  had  to  be  brought 
on  an  average  1,000  miles,  as  the  whole  country  west  of 
Winnipeg  was  too  new  and  unsettled  to  supply  the 
simplest  want.  It  was  important  that  none  of  the  sub¬ 
contractors  should  undertake  more  than  they  could  ac¬ 
complish  within  the  specified  time,  and  of  the  sixty  parties 
employed,  and  over  three  hundred  separate  contracts  let 
on  the  prairie  section  of  the  work,  only  twice  was  there 
any  delay  in  this  respect,  or  where  the  firm  had  to  com¬ 
plete  the  work  themselves.  As  soon  as  a  gang  had 
finished  one  section,  they  had  to  move  from  100  to  150 
miles  ahead  to  their  next  location,  where  in  another  six 
weeks  they  were  tolerably  sure  to  hear  the  locomotives 
behind  them,  and  the  clanging  of  the  hundred  hammers 
of  the  platelayers  close  at  their  heels. 

‘  ‘  In  advance  of  the  track-laying  party  were  two  bridge 
gangs,  one  working  night  and  the  other  in  the  day,  and 
as  every  stick  of  timber  had  to  be  brought  from  Rat 
Portage,  140  miles  east  of  Winnipeg,  they  were  seldom 
more  than  eight  to  ten  miles  ahead  of  the  track-layers. 
The  timber  had  to  be  hauled  from  the  point  where  it  could 
be  unloaded,  as  near  to  the  end  of  the  track  as  possible, 
to  the  place  where  it  was  wanted,  and  this  was  generally 
done  in  the  night  to  interfere  as  little  as  possible  with 
the  other  work.  Where  not  a  stick  of  timber  nor  any 
preparation  for  work  could  be  seen  one  day,  the  next 
would  show  two  or  three  spans  of  a  nicely-finished  bridge, 
and  twenty-four  hours  afterwards  the  rails  would  be  laid 
and  trains  working  regularly  over  it.  Following  these 
came  the  track-laying  gang,  the  most  attractive  and  lively 
party  of  the  lot,  and  on  which  most  of  the  interest  of 
those  who  visited  the  work  seemed  to  centre.  There  were 
three  hundred  men  with  thirty-five  teams  in  this  gang. 
Moving  along  slowly  but  with  admirable  precision,  it  was 
beautiful  to  watch  them  gradually  coming  near,  every- 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD 


299 


tiling  moving  like  clockwork,  each  man  in  kis  place,  know¬ 
ing  exactly  liis  work  and  doing  it  at  the  right  time  and  in 
the  right  way.  Onward  they  come,  pass  on,  and  leave 
the  wandering  spectator  slowly  behind  whilst  he  is  still 
engrossed  with  the  wonderful  sight.  The  returning  loco¬ 
motive,  with  her  long  string  of  empty  cars  rushing  past 
him,  awakens  him  from  his  reverie,  and  another,  pushing 
before  her  more  slowly  her  heavy  load  and  taking  them 
up  to  the  front,  shows  him  that  where  an  hour  before 
there  was  nothing  but  the  upturned  sod,  two  ditches,  and 
a  low  embankment,  there  is  now  a  finished  working  rail¬ 
way,  and  that  the  great  Pacific  highway  is  a  fixed  fact 
before  his  eyes.  The  emblem  of  civilization  has  passed, 
the  subjugation  of  the  land  is  accomplished,  and  that 
which  was  the  hunting-ground  of  the  Indian  and  the  home 
of  the  buffalo  yesterday,  has  gone  forever  from  his  occu¬ 
pation,  is  Britain  to-day,  not  in  name  only  but  in  use,  and 
will  probably  be  occupied  within  a  week  by  some  hopeful 
and  happy  British  family,  who  in  another  season  or  two 
will  make  it  a  smiling  home,  and  the  abode  of  lasting  com¬ 
fort  and  prosperity.  No  wonder  that  it  was  a  sight  that 
hundreds  came  to  see;  it  was  a  miracle  of  progress,  the 
visible  growth  of  an  empire,  the  practical  realisation  of 
the  dream  of  centuries,  as  the  highway  was  gradually 
being  laid  down  destined  to  conduct  the  commerce  of 
Europe  to  that  wonderful  Orient  where  a  prodigal  Nature 
pours  out  her  riches  to  supply  the  wants  and  luxuries  of 
the  world.  All  that  Columbus  and  Champlain  and  others 
had  hoped  to  discover,  all  that  Magellan  and  Hudson  and 
Franklin  had  died  to  find  out,  all  that  England  and  Spain 
had  bestowed  their  money  to  explore,  and  all  that  France 
had  lavished  her  energies  and  sacrificed  her  heroes  to 
control,  was  quietly  being  accomplished  by  that  motley 
gang  and  those  few  locomotives  as  the  northwest  passage 
to  Asia  was  being  gradually  laid  down  over  these  hitherto 
unserviceable  prairies.  Each  day  from  twenty  to 
twenty-five  20-ton  cars  of  rails  and  fastenings,  and  from 
forty  to  fifty  cars  of  ties  and  other  materials  were  laid 
down  by  this  busy  track-laying  gang,  and  nearly  all  ol 


300  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

this  had  come  an  average  of  1,000  miles  by  rail  before  it 
was  safely  delivered  at  the  ‘  end  of  the  track.’  ” 

Under  these  conditions  it  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that 
in  1882  no  less  than  349  miles  of  finished  railway  was  laid, 
in  addition  to  110  miles  of  grading  in  advance.  For 
some  months  operations  were  sadly  delayed  by  the  dis¬ 
astrous  floods  on  the  Red  River;  and  in  order  to  make 
up  for  lost  time  some  extraordinary  work  was  witnessed 
during  the  last  six  months  of  the  year,  during  which  rail¬ 
head  advanced  at  the  rate  of  nearly  two  miles  a  day. 
Even  this  record  was  eclipsed  in  1883,  when  for  several 
weeks  on  end  3V2  miles  of  track  were  completed  daily,  the 
finest  record,  that  of  July  28,  being  quite  unsurpassed  in 
railway  construction. 

On  that  day  6%  miles  were  laid.  This  is  how  the 
writer  already  quoted  describes  it: 

“  There  were  twenty-four  men  to  handle  the  iron,  that 
is,  twelve  unloading  it  from  the  cars,  and  twelve  to  load 
the  trollies.  It  took  the  same  number  to  lay  it  down  in 
the  track.  The  total  number  of  rails  laid  that  day  was 
2,120,  or  604  tons.  Five  men  on  each  side  of  the  front 
car  handed  down  1,060  rails,  302  tons  each  gang,  whilst 
the  two  distributors  of  angle-plates,  and  bolts,  and  ad¬ 
justors  of  the  rails  for  running  out  over  the  rollers, 
handled  2,120  rails,  4,240  plates,  and  8,480  bolts.  These 
were  followed  by  fifteen  bolters,  who  put  in  on  an  average 
565  bolts  each;  then  thirty-two  spikers,  with  a  nipper  to 
each  pair,  drove  63,000  spikes,  which  were  distributed  by 
four  peddlers.  The  lead  and  gauge  spikers  each  drove 
2,120  spikes,  which,  averaging  four  blows  to  each  spike, 
would  require  600  blows  an  hour  for  fourteen  hours. 
There  were  16,000  ties  or  sleepers  unloaded  from  the 
trains,  and  reloaded  on  to  wagons  by  thirty-two  men, 
and  thirty-three  teams  hauled  them  forward  on  to  the 
track,  averaging  seventeen  loads  of  thirty  sleepers  to 
each  team.  On  the  track  eight  men  unloaded  and  dis¬ 
tributed  them,  and  four  others  spaced  them,  two  others 
spaced  and  distanced  the  joint  ties,  and  two  others  ar¬ 
ranged  and  adjusted  displaced  ties  immediately  in  front 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD 


301 


of  the  leading  spikers.  Four  iron  carboys  and  two  horses 
were  used  to  haul  the  iron  to  the  front.  The  first  two 
miles  of  material  were  hauled  ten  miles  along  the  prairie, 
and  the  rest  from  three  miles  up,  as  the  usual  side  track 
gang  put  in  a  siding  two  thousand  feet  long  during  the 
day. ’  ’ 

To  feed  the  army  of  9,000  men  at  work  on  the  prairies 
over  150  miles  of  country  was  in  itself  a,  heavy  task.  The 
horses  consumed  1,600  bushels  of  oats  a  day,  and  the  men 
required  the  contents  of  two  35-foot  trucks  to  keep  them 
in  condition  for  their  severe  labors.  There  was  no  under¬ 
feeding  or  bad  provisions.  In  1893  a  thousand  cattle 
died  in  the  prairie  slaughter-houses ;  three  hundred  sacks 
of  flour  were  distributed  among  the  army  of  navvies,  who 
lived  well  on  a  generous  variety  of  food.  The  camps 
were  well  policed.  .  .  .  All  trains  were  carefully  ex¬ 
amined  for  contraband  goods.  If  a  man  was  detected 
importing  liquor,  he  lost  his  property  and  fifty  dollars. 
A  second  offense  meant  a  $200  fine ;  on  the  third  occasion 
it  was  doubled,  and  he  was  ornamented  with  a  ball  and 
chain  on  one  leg.  The  fact  that  such  magnificent  work 
was  done  in  Canada  without  the  aid  of  alcohol  is  a  serious 
blow  to  the  claims  put  forward  by  a  large  portion  of  the 
community  in  this  and  other  countries  on  behalf  of  the 
valuable  properties  of  strong  drink  as  a  help  for  hard 
physical  labor. 

On  August  15,  1893,  the  rail-head  reached  Calgary,  and 
Messrs.  Langdon  &  Shepherd’s  men  were  transferred  to 
a  fresh  contract  to  penetrate  the  Rockies.  In  three  sea¬ 
sons  962  miles  had  been  laid  between  Winnipeg  and  these 
mountains.  Meanwhile  progress  was  being  made  in  other 
sections.  In  British  Columbia  an  army  of  7,000  Chinese 
hacked  and  hewed  its  way  through  the  Cascade  Range, 
and  as  many  more  laborers  were  busy  between  Winnipeg 
and  Ottawa,  breaking  down,  with  thousands  of  tons  of 
dynamite,  the  tough  Laurentian  and  Huron  rocks.  Along 
the  northern  shore  of  Lake  Superior  the  amount  of  blast¬ 
ing  to  be  done  made  it  worth  while  to  establish  dynamite 
factories  on  the  spot.  A  single  mile  of  tunnelling  by 
Vol.  IV  — 18 


302  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

the  lake  side  is  said  to  have  cost  $3,750,000.  It  was 
fortunate  that,  in  spite  of  natural  obstacles,  the 
work  was  energetically  carried  out,  winter  and  summer 
alike,  since  in  the  spring  of  1835  Louis  Eiel,  at  the 
head  of  a  band  of  malcontents,  raised  a  second  rebellion 
in  the  far  Northwest,  which  was  quickly  crushed  on 
account  of  the  speed  with  which  the  nearly  finished 
railway  enabled  the  nlilitia  to  arrive  on  the  scene  of 
action.  Very  shortly  after  this  rebellion  the  line 
stretched  continuously  from  Montreal  to  the  summit  of 
the  Rockies. 

The  latter  had  been  reached  at  the  end  of  1884,  and  the 
engineers  paused  awhile  to  consider  the  merits  of  the 
various  routes  open  for  the  descending  gradients  on  the 
Pacific  slope.  One  of  these,  the  Ilowse  Pass,  offered 
comparatively  easy  gradients,  but  it  would  have  added 
thirty  miles  to  the  length  of  the  line.  The  Kicking  Horse 
Pass,  on  the  other  hand,  was  short  but  steep,  and  in  order 
to  complete  the  transcontinental  track  without  loss  of 
time,  the  engineers  decided  to  build  a  temporary  line 
through  the  Kicking  Horse  Pass,  and  replace  it  later  on 
by  the  more  circuitous  but  gentler  gradients  of  the  Howse 
Pass.  “  In  the  44  miles  between  the  summit  of  the 
Rockies  and  the  mouth  of  the  pass  in  the  valley  of  the 
Columbia  River,  a  fall  of  2,747  feet  was  accomplished,  and 
in  that  distance,  in  addition  to  other  minor  streams,  the 
Kicking  Horse  River  was  crossed  nine  times,  and,  ex¬ 
clusive  of  tunnels,  1,500,000  cubic  yards  were  excavated, 
370,000  of  which  were  of  rock.  The  drilling  for  this, 
owing  to  the  impossibility  of  conveying  machinery  to  the 
spot,  was  done  by  hand.  In  one  part  treacherous  land¬ 
slips  gave  far  more  trouble  than  even  the  hardest  rock.m 

Early  in  1885,  while  the  eastern  sections  of  the  C.  P.  R. 
were  being  linked  up  round  Lake  Superior,  a  gap  of  only 
220  miles  remained  in  Columbia.  But  across  the  gap 
stretched  the  Selkirks  and  the  Gold  Range.  The  former 
had  proved  almost  impenetrable  even  to  the  surveyors, 


1  Quarterly  Review ,  1888. 


SOME  WONDERS  OF  THE  RAILROAD 


303 


and  when  at  last  Major  Rogers,  the  Company’s  engineer, 
acting  on  the  advice  of  a  Mr.  Moberley  —  who  in  turn  had 
got  a  hint  from  the  flight  of  an  eagle  —  discovered  a 
practicable  path,  the  platelayers  were  hard  on  his  heels. 

The  two  parties  finally  met  in  Eagle  Pass,  in  the  Gold 
Range.  Before  the  last  few  miles  had  been  laid  the  first 
transcontinental  train  was  despatched  from  Montreal,  on 
what  was  confidently  expected  to  be  an  unbroken  journey 
to  the  Pacific.  On  November  5,  1885,  a  day  that  should 
go  down  to  posterity  as  marking  a  critical  event  in  Ca¬ 
nadian  history,  the  last  rail  was  laid,  and  the  last  spike 
driven,  in  a  lonely  forest  glade  at  Craigellacliie.  There 
was  no  ceremony,  no  feasting  or  speechmaking  to  mark 
the  event.  The  last  spike  was  no  golden  one,  such  as 
closed  the  Northern  Pacific  plate-laying  in  the  presence  of 
a  large  multitude,  but  of  plain  iron  like  the  millions  of 
others  that  had  preceded  it.  It  was  hammered  in  by  Sir 
Donald  Smith,  a  dozen  or  so  persons  looking  on,  and  then 
the  small  party  went  off  to  fish,  just  as  if  the  completion 
of  so  gigantic  a  work  were  quite  an  ordinary  occurrence ! 
But  meanwhile  the  news  was  flashed  over  the  wire  span¬ 
ning  mountain  and  plain.  The  whole  world  knew  that 
the  line  was  open  six  months  before  time ! 

Thus  in  four  years  and  a  half  2,200  miles  of  rails  had 
been  laid,  in  a  solid  and  substantial  manner.  At  only  one 
point  between  Montreal  and  Winnipeg  does  a  gradient 
exceed  fifty  feet  to  the  mile.  Though  there  had  been  no 
obstruction  from  hostile  Indians,  such  as  had  hindered 
the  railway  extension  in  the  States,  the  route  on  the  whole 
lay  through  difficult  country.  The  Canadian  Pacific  Rail¬ 
way  has  a  distinct  advantage  over  the  Northern  Pacific 
and  Union  Pacific  systems  as  regards  the  altitudes 
reached  by  its  rails.  The  highest  point  above  sea-level 
on  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  is  5,296  feet,  as  against 
the  5,563  of  the  Northern  Pacific  and  the  8,240  of  the 
Union  Pacific.  As  a  transcontinental  route  it  has  also 
in  its  favor  the  fact  that  but  2,906  miles  separate  Mont¬ 
real  and  Vancouver,  as  compared  with  the  3,271  miles  be¬ 
tween  New  York  and  San  Francisco.  Since  the  St.  Law- 


304  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

rence  is  open  for  traffic  during  the  summer  months  only, 
the  Government  brought  into  being  a  line,  known  as  4  4  The 
International,”  to  connect  Montreal  with  the  British 
ports  of  St  John  in  New  Brunswick  and  Halifax  in  Nova 
Scotia,  which  all  the  year  round  would  give  a  clear  run 
from  the  waters  of  one  ocean  to  those  of  the  other,  the 
St.  Lawrence  being  crossed  by  a  magnificent  bridge  at 
Lacliine. 


SOME  AMERICAN  BRIDGES. 


BY 


Archibald  Williams. 


HE  second  place  among  monster  bridges  is  held  by 


the  Brooklyn  Suspension  Bridge,  connecting  Man- 


hattan  Island,  on  which  stands  New  York  proper, 
with  Long  Island.  Previously  to  1883  New  York,  with 
its  population  of  two  millions,  and  Brooklyn,  counting 
a  million  inhabitants,  were  kept  in  communication  across 
a  narrow  strait,  twelve  miles  long,  opening  into  Long 
Island  Sound,  known  as  the  East  river,  by  a  number  of 
steam  ferries,  one  of  which  alone  transports  22,000,000 
foot  passengers  and  1,100,000  vehicles  annualty. 

With  the  growth  of  population  the  absence  of  some 
permanent  connection  between  the  two  islands  was  so 
severely  felt  that  it  was  determined  to  link  the  two  with 
a  bridge  of  such  a  height  above  the  water  as  to  offer  no 
obstruction  to  the  shipping  passing  down  the  Sound  to 
New  York  harbor.  The  spot  selected  for  the  bridge  is 
at  the  southern  end  of  the  East  river  strait,  where  it 
narrows  down  to  a  width  of  rather  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  mile. 

In  deciding  on  the  suspension  type,  American  engineers 
had  two  good  precedents  —  The  Ohio  river  and  Clifton 
Suspension  at  Niagara,  which  then  held  the  record  in 


Erom  u  The  Romance  of  Modern  Engineering.”  London. 


BROOKLYN  BRIDGE 

FROM  A  PHOTOGRAFH 

Brooklyn  Bridge  was  opened  for  traffic  in  May,  1883, 
having  taken  thirteen  years  to  build  and  having  cost  about 
fifteen  million  dollars.  It  is  85  feet  wide  and  spans  about 
1,600  feet  of  river,  while  on  either  side  it  runs  over  about 
950  feet  of  land.  The  clear  height  of  the  bridge  in  the 
center  of  the  river  span  is  135  feet  above  the  water;  the 
permanent  weight  suspended  from  the  cables  which  hold  up 
the  bridge  is  14,680  tons. 


SOME  AMERICAN  BRIDGES 


307 


point  of  span.  The  Ohio  bridge  at  Cincinnati  had  a  clear 
leap  of  1,000  feet ;  while  that  at  Niagara  measured  1,268 
feet  between  the  centres  of  the  towers,  standing  on  either 
side  of  the  gorge  below  the  Falls.  This  bridge,  opened 
to  traffic  in  1869,  as  a  result  of  but  twelve  months  ’  work, 
hung  from  two  cables  1,888  feet  long,  passing  over  rollers 
on  the  summit  of  the  towers,  which  were  built  of  wood 
strengthened  by  massive  iron  frames.  The  cables  each 
contained  931  wires,  1-7-inch  diameter,  twisted  into  seven 
ropes.  When  loaded  with  an  average  amount  of  traffic 
the  bridge  weighed  360  tons.  To  prevent  excessive 
lateral  oscillation  strong  steel  guy  ropes  were  strung  from 
various  points  on  the  structure  to  anchorages  on  the  side 
of  the  gorge.  After  standing  and  doing  useful  service 
for  many  years,  the  bridge  was  destroyed  by  one  of  the 
tremendous  hurricanes  that  periodically  sweep  down  the 
Niagara  gorge  as  through  a  funnel. 

There  remained,  however,  the  Niagara  Railway  Sus¬ 
pension  Bridge,  completed  in  1855.  This  has  a  span  of 
821  feet,  the  track  passing  245  feet  above  the  river.  It 
should  be  explained  that  the  lower  chord  of  the  bridge  is  a 
girder  with  two  floors,  the  upper  of  which  carries  the 
railroad,  while  the  lower  serves  for  foot  and  ordinary 
vehicular  traffic.  As  originally  constructed  two  masonry 
towers  bore  the  weight  of  the  four  cables  —  each  con¬ 
taining  3,640  iron  wires  —  that  support  the  girder.  After 
twenty-six  years  of  wear  it  was  discovered  that  these 
towers  had  been  bent  inwards  to  a  dangerous  extent, 
owing  to  the  rollers  on  which  the  cable  saddles  work  at  the 
tower  tops  having  become  clogged  with  cement.  The 
engineers  therefore  built  iron  skeleton  towers  outside  the 
masonry,  and  without  in  any  way  interrupting  the  traffic 
of  the  bridge,  transferred  the  cables  from  the  stone  to 
the  iron  supports  by  means  of  powerful  hydraulic  jacks. 
This  is  a  most  interesting  feat,  and  probably  unique. 
When  the  bridge  was  in  course  of  construction  Robert 
Stephenson,  engaged  on  the  Victoria  Tubular  Bridge  at 
Montreal,  said  to  the  designer  of  the  Niagara  Suspen¬ 
sion —  Mr.  John  A.  Roebling  —  “  If  your  bridge  succeeds, 


308 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


mine  is  a  magnificent  blunder.”  The  light  American 
structure  did  succeed.1 

The  Brooklyn  bridge,  like  that  at  Niagara,  is  carried 
on  four  main  cables.  The  supports  are  two  huge  towers, 
rising  272  feet  above  high  water.  At  the  river  level  they 
measure  140  feet  broad  by  50  deep,  which  dimensions 
decrease  to  120x40  feet  at  the  summit. 

On  the  New  York  side  the  masonry  is  carried  down 
to  rock  78  feet  below  water  level,  giving  the  tower  a  total 
height  of  350  feet.  The  masonry  built  into  the  two  towers 
aggregated  85,000  cubic  yards.  The  central  span  is 
1,5954  feet.  Between  the  towers  and  the  anchorages  are 
two  930-foot  spans ;  and  beyond  these  approaches  that  add 
2,534  feet  to  the  total  length  —  5,989  feet,  or  about  a  mile 
and  a  furlong. 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  the  bridge  is  the  cable 
work.  Each  of  the  four  cables,  anchored  at  either  end 
to  massive  23-ton  plates,  embedded  in  huge  masses  of 
masonry,  each  representing  more  than  44,000  tons,  con¬ 
tains  5,296  galvanized  steel  wires,  which  were  carried 
separately  from  tower  to  tower,  and  bound  up  together 
in  a  parallel  formation  into  a  cylinder  15f  inches  in 
diameter. 

The  breaking  strain  of  a  cable  is  12,000  tons.  As  each 
strand  is  3,572  feet  long,  about  1,200  miles  of  wire  were 
used  in  the  cables. 

These  support  six  parallel  steel  trusses,  on  which  is 
laid  the  roadway,  85  feet  wide,  divided  into  two  carriage- 
tracks,  two  tramways,  and  one  footway.  The  bridge  rises 
towards  its  centre  on  a  gradient  of  31  per  cent.,  the  head¬ 
way  increasing  from  119  feet  at  the  towers  to  135  in 
mid-channel. 

The  bridge  cost  $15,000,000,  two-tliirds  of  which  was 
contributed  by  the  Brooklyn  municipality,  and  one-third 
by  that  of  New  York.  It  was  begun  in  1870  and  opened 
to  the  public  in  1883.  Upwards  of  a  quarter  of  a  million 
people  cross  the  bridge  daily;  but  so  great  is  the  traffic 


1  u  The  Railways  of  America,”  by  Thomas  M.  Cooley. 


SOME  AMERICAN  BRIDGES 


309 


between  Manhattan  and  Long  Island  that  three'  more 
bridges  across  the  East  river,  in  the  first  rank  of  such 
structures,  and  formidable  competitors  in  regard  to  size 
with  the  Brooklyn  bridge,  have  become  necessary.1 

A  traveler  in  the  United  States  is  struck  by  the  versa¬ 
tility  of  the  American  bridge-builder,  whose  genius 
develops  most  happily  towards  the  erection  of  light,  airy 
viaducts  spanning  many  of  the  valleys  through  which  the 
great  network  of  railways  run.  On  the  average  there 
is  one  span  of  metallic  bridge  for  every  three  miles  of 
railway,  giving  a  total  of  over  63,000.  The  increase  in 
weight  of  locomotives  and  rolling-stock  has  led  to  the 
renewal  of  many  of  these  bridges,  by  the  substitution  of 
more  substantial  work.  And  the  rapid  extension  of 
existing  svstems  constantlv  demands  the  manufacture  of 
new  bridges.  Consequently  the  demand  has  driven  manu¬ 
facturers  to  standardise  their  patterns,  and  arrive  at  a 
distinct  understanding  with  the  railway  engineers  that, 
except  in  special  cases,  where  divergence  is  unavoidable, 
all  bridges  ordered  shall  conform  to  certain  stereotyped 
designs,  which  have  been  decided  upon  after  much  experi¬ 
mentation. 

The  American  bridge-building  companies,  thanks  to 
this  scientific  arrangement,  and  the  large  number  of 
orders  that  they  are  called  upon  to  fill,  have  advanced  the 
practice  of  bridge-making  to  a  point  that  enables  them 
to  compete  favorably  with  the  manufacturers  of  other 
countries.  The  American  railway  engineer  gives  meas¬ 
urements  to  the  bridge  company,  which  by  long  prac¬ 
tice  knows  just  what  is  required  to  meet  a  particular 
case,  and  turns  it  mechanics,  armed  with  all  manner  of 
labor-saving  tools,  on  to  cheaply  made  steel.  In  a  few 
weeks  or  months  the  bridge  is  ready  for  delivery,  the 
makers  confident  that  when  the  pieces  are  assembled  in 

*More  wonderful  still  than  the  bridges  connecting  Manhattan  island 
with  the  mainland  and  the  adjacent  islands,  are  the  submarine  tunnels 
now  in  course  of  construction.  They  are  the  latest  triumphs  of  Ameri¬ 
can  inventiveness  and  engineering  skill. 


310 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


situ  they  will  come  together  “  like  a  clock.’ ’  Very  prob¬ 
ably  the  company  does  the  erecting  as  well,  so  that  after 
the  order  is  given  the  railway  board’s  part  of  the  work 
is  confined  to  handing  over  a  cheque  to  the  proper  amount, 
when  the  bridge  has  been  passed  by  their  engineers. 

On  American  railroads  the  trestle  bridge  is  a  very  com¬ 
mon  object,  often  towering  to  a  giddy  height,  that  dwarfs 
the  giant  locomotives  passing  overhead.  In  1890  there 
were  in  the  States  147,187  wooden  trestle  spans,  aggre¬ 
gating  2,127  miles  of  track.  These,  as  liable  to  insidious 
decay  and  danger  from  fire,  are  being  replaced  by  steel 
structures  as  fast  as  is  possible.  A  notable  instance 
is  the  Portage  viaduct  on  the  Erie  railway,  New  York, 
crossing  a  river  234  feet  above  the  bed.  The  old  via¬ 
duct  contained  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  feet  of 
timber,  arranged  in  piers  formed  of  three  grouped 
trestles.  This  was  burned  in  1875,  and  in  its  stead  now 
stands  a  remarkably  slender-looking  viaduct  of  wrought 
iron,  weighing  but  a  small  fracture  of  the  wooden  struc¬ 
ture. 

The  same  railway  boasts  another  remarkable  viaduct, 
the  Kinzua,  2,400  feet  long  and  305  feet  high.  It  was 
built  by  Messrs.  Clarke,  Peeves  &■  Co.,  in  the  short  space 
of  three  months,  without  the  use  of  any  staging  or  lad¬ 
ders.  The  original  spider-like  supports  have  recently 
been  replaced  by  steel  trestles  of  a  more  solid  nature, 
better  calculated  to  sustain  the  great  increase  of  rolling- 
stock  weight. 

Outside  the  country  of  its  birth  the  American  bridge 
is  making  headway.  In  recent  years  British  builders 
have  several  times  felt  their  inability  to  compete  with 
their  transatlantic  cousins,  when  creation  and  erection 

4 

lias  to  be  hurried  through.  To  take  three  notable  ex¬ 
amples.  The  Atbara  bridge,  seven  spans  of  147  feet,  was 
tendered  for  by  American  makers  at  about  $55  per  ton; 
construction  to  take  six  weeks  and  erection  eight  weeks. 
The  nearest  English  tender  showed  about  $78  per  ton, 
and  twenty-six  weeks.  The  Uganda  viaducts,  East 
Africa,  also  fell  to  American  makers,  since  their  price  was 


SOME  AMERICAN  BRIDGES 


311 


but  tliree-fiftlis  of  the  English  figures.  And  in  the  third 
instance,  that  of  the  Gokteik  viaduct,  Burma,  their  price 
was  little  more  than  ha]f  that  of  British  makers,  and  the 
contract  time  one  year  as  against  three  years.  These 
examples  show  how  unequal  is  the  competition,  owing 
largely  to  the  conservatism  of  English  methods,  and  the 
vexatious  restrictions  which  hamper  industrial  progress. 
To  ‘  ‘  keep  his  end  up  ’  ’  the  British  manufacturer  will  need 
to  consign  much  of  his  machinery  to  the  scrap  heap,  adopt 
standard  designs,  and  instill  a  spirit  of  greater  enter¬ 
prise  into  his  employes. 

The  Gokteik  viaduct,  as  the  loftiest  trestle  erection  in 
the  world,  and  among  the  latest  born,  deserves  special 
notice.  It  affords  a  typical  illustration  of  American 
methods. 

The  Burma  railway,  running  from  Rangoon  to  Manda¬ 
lay,  a  distance  of  about  400  miles,  has  lately  been  ex¬ 
tended  in  an  easterly  direction  through  the  Shan  States 
to  Lashio,  en  route  to  the  Kunlon  Ferry  on  the  Salween 
river,  following  the  track  over  which  in  Marco  Polo’s 
time  the  Chinese  armies  marched  to  Mandalay. 

Eighty  miles  east  of  the  latter  town  is  the  Gokteik 
gorge,  with  an  average  depth  of  1,300  feet,  eaten  out  by 
the  Chungzoune  river.  It  was  first  proposed  to  cross  this 
formidable  obstacle  by  means  of  short  rack  railways  on 
the  Abt  principle,  which  should  lower  trains  from  the 
high  ground  to  a  point  in  the  gorge  where  huge  blocks 
of  limestone  have  fallen  into  the  glen  to  form  a  natural 
bridge  500  feet  above  the  river.  A  viaduct  80  feet  high 
and  500  feet  long  would  suffice  for  the  crossing. 

Eventually  it  was  decided  to  flatten  the  grades  of  the 
approaches  to  1  in  40,  and  raise  the  viaduct  level  to  over 
300  feet  above  the  natural  bridge.  It  should  be  said  of 
the  approaches  themselves  that  they  pass  through  very 
rough  country,  where  the  gradients  are  too  steep  to  admit 
of  curves.  By  means  of  switchback  reversing  stations 
every  two  or  three  miles  the  train  clambers  slowly  up¬ 
wards  in  a  zigzag  course,  on  the  edge  of  awful  preci¬ 
pices.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  gorge  the  line  still 


312 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


sticks  to  steep  hillsides,  passes  through  two  tunnels  and 
heavy  cuttings,  and  then  twists  upwards  by  help  of  three 
semi-circular  loops. 

The  viaduct  was  designed  by  Sir  Alexander  Rendel  & 
Co.,  consulting  engineers  to  the  Burma  Railways  Com¬ 
pany.  The  contract  fell  to  the  Pennsylvania  Steel  Com¬ 
pany,  of  Steelton.  Sir  Frederic  Fryer,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Burma,  at  the  opening  ceremonies,  said  that 
they  obtained  the  contract  because  they  were  able  to 
submit  a  far  more  favorable  tender  than  any  English 
firm,  both  in  point  of  cost  and  of  time. 

Within  four  months  of  the  signing  of  the  contract  the 
first  shipload  of  material  was  despatched  from  New  York. 
Two  months  later  it  arrived  at  Rangoon.  The  transport 
of  4,332  tons  of  steel  over  a  line  that  had  suffered  severely 
from  the  15-foot  rainfall  of  the  wet  season  was  much 
delayed ;  but  in  spite  of  obstacles  erection  commenced  in 
October. 

To  facilitate  the  classification  and  separation  of  the 
various  parts  and  the  handling  of  them  by  ignorant 
natives,  each  truss,  girder,  and  column  was  painted  a 
distinctive  color,  and  the  joints  when  shop-assembled  were- 
streaked  with  special  combinations  of  stripes  on  each 
adjacent  piece.  Along  with  the  bridge  material  came 
pneumatic  reamers  and  riveting  hammers,  hoisting 
engines,  derricks,  telephones,  and  last,  but  by  no  means 
least,  thirty-five  American  workmen. 

To  aid  in  the  erection  a  temporary  line  was  laid  in 
zigzags  down  the  side  of  the  gorge ;  this  carried  material 
to  the  foot  of  the  viaduct,  and  also  helped  the  transport 
of  rails,  sleepers,  and  even  two  locomotives  (in  pieces) 
to  the  further  side,  where  thirty-five  miles  of  track  were 
laid  during  the  construction  of  the  viaduct. 

From  Steelton  to  Gokteik  is  10,599  miles,  an  almost, 
if  not  quite,  unprecedented  distance  to  send  the  ready¬ 
made  up  parts  of  so  large  a  structure.  As  fast  as  the 
metal  arrived  at  the  bridge-end  it  was  whipped  out  of 
the  meter-gauge  cars  by  great  steam  derricks,  which 
handed  them  over  to  smaller  derricks  for  sorting  and 


SOME  AMERICAN  BRIDGES 


313 


storage.  At  times  the  press  of  work  was  so  heavy  that 
the  trucks,  immediately  they  were  emptied,  were  picked 
up  by  the  15-ton  crane  and  set  down  on  the  bank  in  piles, 
many  feet  below  the  track,  to  make  way  for  loaded  cars. 

As  soon  as  sufficient  stuff  had  accumulated  the 
“  traveler  ”  was  erected  at  the  south  end  of  the  bridge. 
This  machine,  which  plays  so  important  a  part  in 
American  bridge  building,  and  is  largely  responsible  for 
the  celerity  of  operations,  is  a  large  framework,  the  rear 
end  of  which  is  anchored  to  a  completed  section  of  the 
structure,  while  the  forward  and  larger  part  overhangs 
and  acts  as  a  crane  through  which  parts  of  the  next  sec¬ 
tion  are  lowered  into  place.  The  Gokteik  traveler  was 
24-J  feet  wide,  60  feet  high,  and  219  feet  long,  with  an 
unprecedented  overhang  of  165  feet.  Cars  running 
along  the  track  transferred  joists  and  trusses  to  the  run¬ 
ning  tackle,  which  quickly  let  them  down  and  held  them 
in  position  while  the  riveters,  mostly  natives,  fixed  them. 
Some  British  and  German  sailors  proved  very  useful  on 
the  traveler  and  topmost  points. of  the  rising  towers,  and 
set  a  very  wholesome  example  to  the  350  odd  coolies 
engaged. 

Now  for  a  few  figures  about  the  bridge.  Its  total 
length  from  abutment  to  abutment  is  2,260  feet.  For 
281  feet  at  one  end  and  341  at  the  other,  it  is  curved 
to  a  radius  of  800  feet.  The  intermediate  1,638  feet  runs 
tangentially  (in  a  straight  line)  at  a  height  varying 
between  130  and  320  feet  above  the  natural  bridge  and 
valley  slopes.  There  are  seventeen  spans,  ten  120  feet 
long,  seven  60  feet  long.  The  fifteen  trestles,  or  towers, 
each  of  four  columns  (with  one  exception),  are  24%  feet 
broad  at  top,  and  widen  towards  the  bottom  with  a  batter 
of  5  in  24.  The  trestle  is  40  feet  long,  and  is  divided 
into  stories  35  feet  Jdgh,  which  are  braced  diagonally. 
At  the  highest  point  of  the  viaduct,  over  the  natural 
bridge,  there  is  a  double  tower  80  feet  long,  with  six 
columns  320  feet  high.  The  120-foot  girders  are  of  the 
lattice  type,  and  60  and  40-foot  plate-sided,  42|  and  60i 
inches  deep  respectively. 


314 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


Under  favorable  conditions  the  structure  rose  with 
astonishing  speed,  some  of  the  200-foot  towers  going 
up  in  three  or  four  days.  The  double  tower  consumed  a 
month,  as  its  immense  height  rendered  construction  more 
dangerous,  and  consequently  less  easy. 

As  soon  as  a  tower  was  finished,  the  big  girders  for 
the  space  intervening  between  it  and  that  on  which  the 
traveler  rested  were  swung  out  and  fixed.  Then  fol¬ 
lowed  horizontal  stringers,  cross  floor  beams,  ties,  and 
rails.  These  placed,  the  huge  100-ton  framework  rolled 
forward  to  the  end  of  the  new  span,  and  commanded 
another  masonry  pier,  whence  a  new  tower  began  to  rise. 

On  November  1,  1900,  after  nine  months  *  labor,  the 
last  of  the  200,000  field  rivets  was  driven,  and  the  Gokteik 
viaduct  stood  complete.  As  800,000  rivets  had  already 
been  closed  in  the  shops,  the  total  shows  just  one  million. 
It  is  a  striking  testimony  to  the  thoroughness  of  Amer¬ 
ican  workmanship  that  232,868  separate  pieces  shipped 
from  Steelton  fitted  with  wonderful  accuracy  when 
assembled  in  the  gorge.  The  bridge  cost  the  Bailway 
Company  $300,625. 

In  August,  1906,  an  aerial  tramway  was  completed  by 
the  Conrad  Consolidated  Mining  Company,  extending 
from  Conrad  City,  B.  C.,  four  miles  into  the  mountains, 
and  containing  the  longest  span  of  any  aerial  tramway 
in  the  world.  It  is  2,968  feet  long.  The  next  longest  is 
2,750  feet.  So  successful  has  it  proved  that  the  company 
is  preparing  to  bring  other  similar  tramways  to  mines. 

No  reference  to  American  bridge  building  should  go  forth  without 
containing  the  name  of  James  Buchanan  Eads,  who  is  entitled  to  lasting 
fame  for  building  the  great  steel  arch  bridge  over  the  Mississippi  river 
at  St.  Louis,  one  of  the  most  wonderful  bridges  in  the  world. 

He  is  not  less  famous  for  his  improvements  in  the  South  Pass  of 
that  river,  and  his  work  of  deepening  its  channel  as  far  as  the  Ohio 
river  by  means  of  jetties. 

Eads  was  born  in  Lawrenceberg,  Ind.,  in  1820 ;  was  trained  as  a  civil 
engineer;  made  a  fortune  in  the  business  of  raising  sunken  vessels,  and, 
during  the  Civil  War,  constructed  many  ironclad  gunboats  for  the  Gov¬ 
ernment. —  [C.  W.] 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  BALLOONS. 


BY 

John  Alexander. 

JOSEPH  and  Etienne  (Stephen)  Montgolfier  were 
managers  of  a  paper-works  at  Annonay,  in  France, 
and  it  was  Etienne  who  first  demonstrated  the  prac¬ 
ticability  of  the  theories  put  forward  by  two  scientists  of 
his  time,  Cavallo  and  Dr.  Black,  that  solid  bodies  could 
be  raised  in  the  atmosphere  by  being  attached  to  vessels 
filled  with  gas  of  a  lighter  specific  gravity  than  the  sur¬ 
rounding  air.  Cavallo  in  1772  had  filled  and  floated  soap 
bubbles  with  hydrogen  in  proof  of  this  theory. 

In  1783  Etienne  succeeded,  after  many  failures,  in  rais¬ 
ing  to  a  height  of  1,500  feet  a  large  balloon  of  linen  and 
paper,  thirty-five  feet  in  diameter.  In  shape  this  balloon 
was  much  the  same  as  thousands  that  have  since  been 
made :  an  ordinary  sphere,  and  the  gas  was  generated  by 
burning  moist  straw,  wool,  and  rags  placed  on  an  iron 
brazier  beneath  an  opening  at  the  bottom  of  the  great  bag. 

For  all  practical  purposes  this  was  the  first  balloon. 
The  invention  created  great  excitement  in  France,  which 
has  remained  to  this  day  the  home  of  ballooning.  Paris 
immediately  started  a  subscription  to  construct  a  great 
fire-balloon  or  “  montgolfiere,  ’  ’  as  they  were  called  for 
many  a  day.  The  Montgolfiers  were  the  heroes  of  the 
hour,  patronised  even  by  the  king.  Curiously  enough, 
Etienne  had  not  sufficient  courage  to  trust  himself  to  be 
borne  aloft  by  the  balloon  he  had  invented. 

The  first  aerial  travelers  by  balloon  were  a  sheep,  a 
cock,  and  a  duck,  sent  up  in  a  cage  attached  to  a  mont¬ 
golfiere,  which  the  inventor  raised  at  Versailles  in  Sep¬ 
tember  of  1783  before  the  king  and  court. 

The  previous  month  M.  Charles,  Professor  of  Natural 
Philosophy  in  Paris,  had  gone  one  better  than  Mont- 

From.  u  The  Conquest  of  the  Air.”  London. 

315 


316  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

golfier,  and  sent  aloft  from  the  Champs  de  Mars  a  fine 
balloon  filled  with  hydrogen,  which  gas  had  been  first 
discovered  by  Cavendish  in  1775.  This  balloon  was  thir¬ 
teen  feet  in  diameter.  To  the  present  day  hydrogen 
remains  the  best  material  for  inflating,  being  used  by 
Senor  Santos-Dumont,  though  it  is  much  too  expensive 
for  all  but  the  millionaire  balloonist.  Professor  Charles’ 
balloon  fell  at  Gonesse,  fifteen  miles  from  Paris,  about 
an  hour  after  it  had  been  sent  up,  and  the  amazement 
with  which  the  peasantry  witnessed  its  descent  has  been 
described  in  these  words : 

“  It  is  supposed  by  many  to  have  come  from  another 
world;  others,  more  sensible,  think  it  is  a  monstrous 
bird.  After  it  has  alighted  there  is  some  motion  in 
it  from  the  gas  it  still  contains.  A  small  crowd  gains 
courage  from  numbers,  and  for  an  hour  approaches 
by  gradual  steps,  hoping,  meanwhile,  the  monster  will 
take  flight.  At  length,  one  bolder  than  the  rest  takes  his 
gun,  stalks  carefully  to  within  shot,  fires,  witnesses  the 
monster  shrink,  gives  a  shout  of  triumph,  and  the  crowd 
rushes  in  with  flails  and  pitchforks.  One  tears  what  he 
thinks  to  be  the  skin  and  causes  a  poisonous  stench ;  again 
all  retire.  Shame,  no  doubt,  now  urges  them  on,  and  they 
tie  the  cause  of  alarm  to  the  tail  of  a  horse,  who  gallops 
across  the  country,  tearing  it  to  shreds.” 

The  government  even  found  it  necessary  to  send  a 
proclamation  throughout  the  country  explaining  what  a 
balloon  was,  and  counseling  the  country-folk  not  to  be 
alarmed  if  they  happened  to  see  one.  In  our  own  day  the 
Russian  Government  had  to  do  a  very  similar  thing  in 
connection  with  Andre’s  attempt  to  reach  the  North  Pole 
in  a  balloon.  Some  parts  of  the  world  move  with  the 
ages,  others  remain  stock  still. 

The  distinction  of  being  the  first  of  men  to  ascend  into 
the  air  by  means  of  a  balloon  belongs  neither  to  the  Mont¬ 
golfiers  nor  to  Professor  Charles.  Strangely  enough, 
this  honor  rests  with  two  men  who  ascended  together,  and 
one  of  whom  —  the  Marquis  d’Arlandes  —  was  subse¬ 
quently  “  broke  for  cowardice  ”  in  the  discharge  of  his 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  BALLOONS 


317 


military  duties  at  the  beginning  of  the  French  Revolu¬ 
tion.  Pilatre  de  Rosier  was  the  name  of  his  companion 
in  the  first  balloon  ascent,  which  took  place  from  the 
palace  of  La  Muette,  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  Paris,  on 
November  21st,  1783. 

From  this  time  forward,  according  to  an  old  writer, 
until  the  fatal  termination  of  his  career,  M.  Pilatre  de 
Rosier  seems  to  have  devoted  himself  entirely  to  the 
practice  and  improvement  of  the  art  of  aerostation ;  a. 
pursuit  in  which,  however,  he  was  not  long  destined  to 
continue.  On  June  15,  1785,  in  company  with  a  young 
gentleman,  named  Romain,  he  ascended  at  Boulogne-sur- 
Mer  with  the  intention  of  crossing  the  channel  into  Eng¬ 
land  by  means  of  his  balloon.  Unfortunately  the  arrange¬ 
ments  which  he  adopted  to  secure  his  success  were  the 
cause  of  his  failure  as  well  as  of  his  destruction.  In  order 
to  counteract  the  fluctuations  consequent  upon  all  aerial 
excursions  under  the  ordinary  circumstances,  and  to  ob¬ 
tain  the  power  of  increasing  or  diminishing  the  weight  of 
his  apparatus  at  will,  without  the  usual  expenditure  of  gas 
and  ballast,  he  had  conceived  the  idea  of  uniting  in  one 
the  two  systems  of  Montgolfier  and  Charles,  and,  accord¬ 
ingly,  attached  to  the  hydrogen  balloon,  by  which  the 
principal  part  of  the  weight  was  to  be  borne,  a  small  mont- 
golfiere  or  fire-balloon,  by  acting  upon  which  he  expected 
to  be  able  to  alter  his  specific  gravity  as  occasion  might 
require.  As  our  authority  points  out,  the  theory  was  cor¬ 
rect  :  the  error  lay  in  the  application.  Distended  in  the 
course  of  its  elevation,  the  inflammable  contents  of  the 
larger  sphere  soon  filled  the  vacant  portions  of  the  silk, 
and  pouring  down  the  tube,  which  formed  the  neck  of 
the  balloon,  speediiy  reached  the  furnace,  which  was  dis¬ 
posed  at  its  lower  extremity,  and  became  ignited.  The 
whole  apparatus  was  consumed  in  the  air,  and  the  two  un¬ 
fortunate  voyagers  precipitated  upon  the  rocks  which 
bound  the  shores  of  the  sea  between  Calais  and  Boulogne. 

Concurrently  with  these  French  experiments  two 
American  scientists,  Rittenliouse  and  Hopkins,  of  Phila¬ 
delphia,  were  also  experimenting;  and  there  is  every  rea- 


318  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

son  for  believing  that  their  application  of  hydrogen  to 
the  inflation  of  a  balloon  was  made  independently  of 
Professor  Charles’s  experiment.  Instead  of  one  large 
balloon,  however,  their  aerostat  consisted  of  forty-seven 
small  balloons,  to  which  a  cage  was  attached.  The  scien¬ 
tists,  careful  of  their  own  necks,  induced  a  working  car¬ 
penter,  named  James  Wilcox,  for  a  monetary  considera¬ 
tion,  to  ascend  in  this  cage  at  Philadelphia  on  December 
28, 1783,  and  thus  the  first  American  to  soar  aloft  into  the 
air  of  liberty  did  so  as  a  mercenary.  In  descending  he 
narrowly  escaped  the  broken  neck  which  his  employers 
had  dreaded. 

The  next  ascent  was  undertaken  by  Professor  Charles 
from  the  Champs  de  Mars  on  December  18,  1783,  in  a 
balloon  of  twenty-seven  feet  in  diameter,  inflated  with 
hydrogen.  Charles  was  accompanied  by  a  M.  Robert,  one 
of  the  makers  of  the  balloon,  and  after  returning  to  the 
ground,  excited  probably  by  his  success  and  ignorant  of 
the  laws  of  ballast,  he  reascended  alone,  and  went  up  with 
terrific  velocity,  owing  to  the  sudden  abstraction  of  so 
much  weight.  It  is  supposed  that  he  reached  an  elevation 
of  about  10,500  feet.  After  having  experienced,  accord¬ 
ing  to  his  own  description,  much  inconvenience  from  the 
altitude  he  had  attained,  he  effected  his  descent  without 
further  danger  or  damage. 

It  is  recorded  by  a  contemporary  pamphlet  that  MM. 
Charles  and  Robert  were  arrested,  on  returning  to  Paris, 
by  order  of  the  king,  who,  at  the  suggestion  of  two  of  his 
ecclesiastics,  adopted  this  course  to  prevent  the  further 
endangering  the  lives  of  his  subjects;  but  they  were 
speedily  discharged. 

Joseph  Montgolfier  would  now  appear  to  have  sum¬ 
moned  up  courage  to  risk  a  rise  —  or  a  fall  —  in  a  fire- 
balloon  at  Lyons,  on  January  19,  1784.  The  experiment 
was  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  the  early  ascents, 
being  on  a  scale  which  was  not  exceeded  for  many  years 
after.  It  will,  therefore,  be  well  to  give  a  very  full  ac¬ 
count  of  it,  drawn  from  one  of  the  earliest  writers  on 
aeronautics.  The  balloon  employed  was  a  pyriform  ves- 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  BALLOONS 


319 


sel,  constructed  of  two  layers  of  linen  cloth,  enclosing  one 
of  paper  between  them  (for  the  purpose  of  increasing  its 
imperviousness),  and  measured,  when  fully  inflated,  130 
feet  in  height  and  105  feet  in  breadth.  It  was  capable  of 
containing  40,000  cubic  feet  of  air,  and,  when  charged 
for  the  ascent,  supported  with  ease  seven  persons  and 
ballast  to  the  amount  of  2,900  lbs.  independent  of  its 
various  accessories;  its  car,  in  the  form  of  a  gallery, 
seventy-two  feet  in  circumference,  accommodated  with 
seats,  four  feet  wide  and  eight  apart ;  its  furnace,  twenty 
feet  in  diameter,  with  its  fuel  made  up  into  faggots  of 
wood  and  straw;  its  massive  framework  to  maintain  the 
lower  aperture ;  its  drapery,  netting,  cordage,  implements, 
and  other  requisites  all  in  the  same  proportion,  the  ap¬ 
proximate  weight  of  which  it  would  be  impossible  now  to 
determine. 

The  names  of  those  who  participated  in  the  honor  of 
this  expedition  were,  Joseph  Montgolfer  himself,  under 
whose  direction  the  whole  had  been  got  up,  Pilatre  de 
Rosier,  le  Comte  de  Laurencin,  le  Marquis  de  Dampierre, 
le  Comte  d’Anglefort,  le  Prince  Charles  de  Lignes,  and 
a  young  man  named  Fontaine,  who,  happening  to  be  in  the 
car  at  the  moment  when,  suddenly  lightened  by  the  hasty 
departure  of  another  gentleman,  it  escaped  into  the  air, 
became  accidently  included  in  the  party.  In  a  few  seconds 
it  rose  to  an  elevation  of  about  3,000  feet;  an  opening, 
however,  of  about  four  feet  in  length,  which  appeared 
about  the  equator  of  the  balloon,  soon  brought  it  down 
again,  with  a  velocity  even  greater  than  its  ascent,  and  it 
reached  the  ground  at  a  distance  of  about  12,000  feet  from 
the  place  of  its  departure. 

There  is  no  record  of  Joseph  Montgolfier  ever  having 
repeated  the  performance,  and  the  next  ascent  worthy  of 
notice  was  the  first  that  took  place  from  British  soil. 
This  experiment  has  the  triple  distinction  of  being  the 
first  by  a  native  of  Great  Britain,  and  the  only  one  for 
half  a  century  ever  carried  out  on  the  principle  of  the 
Montgolfiers ’  fire-balloon.  The  name  of  the  daring 
Britisher  was  James  Tytler,  and  Comely  Gardens,  Edin- 
Vol.  IV  — 19 


320 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


burgh,  was  the  scene  of  his  ascent.  It  took  place  on 
August  27,  1784  and  is  thus  described  by  an  eye-witness 
in  the  London  Chronicle: 

“  Early  this  morning  this  bold  adventurer  took  his  first 
aerial  flight.  The  balloon  being  filled  at  Comely  Gardens, 
he  seated  himself  in  the  basket,  and  the  ropes  being  cut, 
lie  ascended  very  high,  and  descended  quite  gradually  on 
the  road  to  Bestalrig,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  place 
where  he  rose,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  those  spectators 
who  were  present.  Mr.  Tytler  went  up  without  the  fur¬ 
nace  this  morning ;  when  that  is  added  he  will  be  able  to 
feed  the  balloon  with  inflammable1  air,  and  continue  his 
aerial  excursions  as  long  as  he  chooses.  Mr.  Tytler  is 
now  in  high  spirits,  and  in  his  turn  laughs  at  those  infidels 
who  ridiculed  his  scheme  as  visionary  and  impracticable. 
Mr.  Tytler  is  the  first  person  in  Great  Britain  who  has 
navigated  the  air.” 

It  is  well  that  this  exploit  of  Tytler ’s  should  be  re¬ 
membered,  as  it  is  a  common  error  to  credit  a  Signor 
Lunardi,  a  gentleman  attached  to  the  Neapolitan  Em¬ 
bassy  in  London,  with  having  made  the  first  ascent  in 
England,  though  in  reality  his  ascent  was  made  from  the 
Boyal  Artillery  Grounds,  Moorfields,  on  September  15, 
1784,  almost  a  month  after  Tytler ’s  performance. 
Lunardi  made  many  other  ascents  in  England  and  Scot¬ 
land  before  returning  to  his  native  country  to  gratify  the 
curiosity  of  the  Italians,  and,  finally,  to  die  in  great 
poverty.  The  first  balloon  ever  sent  up  in  England  was 
launched  in  London  on  November  25,  1783,  by  Count 
Zambeecari ;  but  that  celebrated  aeronaut  did  not  ascend 
himself  until  March  23,  1785,  when,  in  company  with  Sir 
Edward  Vernon,  he  made  an  aerial  journey  of  twenty-five 
miles,  landing  at  Horsham  in  less  than  an  hour  from  leav¬ 
ing  London.  Zambeecari  was  one  of  the  earliest  victims 
of  the  dangerous  montgolfieres,  having  to  make  a  fatal 
plunge  from  a  burning  balloon  at  Bologna  on  September 

*A  misnomer  due  to  the  correspondent’s  ignorance  of  the  principle 
of  inflation. 


THE  BEGINNING  OF  BALLOONS 


321 


21,  1812.  His  companion  on  that  occasion  escaped,  but 
with  fearful  injuries. 

Such,  then,  was  the  beginning  of  ballooning.  It  will  be 
gathered  that  the  montgolfiere  was  a  very  crude  con¬ 
trivance,  and  that  a  great  step  had  been  made  the  moment 
Professor  Charles  had  proved  the  practicability  of  hy¬ 
drogen  as  a  material  for  inflation.  The  wonder  is  that 
the  fire-balloon  remained  in  use  as  long  as  it  did.  Damp 
straw,  rotten  meat,  old  boots  —  these  were  the  fuel  with 
which  the  heated  air  was  generated,  and  the  stench  from 
the  fire,  apart  altogether  from  the  danger  of  the  thing, 
was  most  offensive.  No  wonder  that  Louis  NVI  wished 
to  prevent  respectable  citizens  from  risking  their  lives 
in  such  contrivances;  and  desired  that  the  first  men  to 
ascend  in  one  of  these  fire-balloons  should  be  two  crim¬ 
inals  condemned  to  death. 

With  the  use  of  hydrogen  the  balloon  became,  almost 
at  one  step,  the  machine  which  is  familiar  to  all  to-day, 
and  has  remained  practically  unchanged  in  any  essential 
detail  for  upward  of  a  hundred  years.  The  principle  of 
its  construction  is  simplicity  itself.  A  large  pear-shaped 
bag  of  silk  or  linen,  or  both,  well  varnished  —  to  make  it 
as  nearly  air-tight  as  possible  —  with  an  open  neck  hang¬ 
ing  downwards,  and  at  the  top  a  valve  which  can  be 
opened  when  the  aeronaut  wishes  to  descend  by  letting  out 
a  quantity  of  gas.  Over  the  balloon  is  a  network  of  rope 
meshes  from  which  the  car,  or  basket,  is  suspended. 

Ballast,  in  the  shape  of  bags  of  sand  to  be  thrown  out 
as  required,  is  the  only  method  of  changing  the  rate  of 
upward  progression,  and  vertical  motion  is  the  only 
direction  in  which  the  aeronaut  lias  any  control  over  the 
balloon.  He  cannot  move  it  to  the  right  or  left ;  there  it 
is  at  the  mercy  of  the  air-currents.  A  handful  of  ballast 
thrown  out  may  send  it  up  twenty  yards,  a,  whole  bag 
thrown  out  would  mean  an  upward  rush  at  a  tremendous 
speed.  Even  a  chicken  bone  thrown  out  of  the  car  has 
caused  a  rise  of  thirty  yards ! 

In  the  higher  latitudes  where  the  atmosphere  becomes 
lighter  the  gas  in  the  balloon  expands,  and  for  this  reason 


322 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


the  neck  is  left  open,  or  fitted  with  a  self-acting  valve 
which  enables  the  expanding  gas  to  escape  into  the  air. 
If  the  has-  were  closed  it  would  burst  when  it  reached  the 

o 

region  of  lighter  air. 

It  was  to  an  Englishman,  Charles  Green,  the  most 
famous  British  aeronaut,  who  flourished  in  the  first  part 
of  last  century,  that  we  owe  the  invention  of  the  guide- 
rope,  and  also  the  use  of  ordinary  coal-gas  for  inflation. 
Hydrogen  is  much  more  buoyant,  but  many  times  more 
expensive  and  infinitely  more  difficult  to  apply.  The 
guide-rope  is  used  when  traveling  at  any  altitude  up  to 
1,000  feet  or  thereabout  above  the  ground.  It  hangs  down 
from  the  car  and,  touching  the  ground,  acts  as  a  kind  of 
support,  enabling  the  balloon  to  travel  at  a  fixed  height 
over  great  distances.  The  moment  the  rope  trails  on  the 
ground  the  part  touching  the  earth  is  like  ballast  thrown 
out,  and  releases  the  balloon  to  that  extent,  while  the  part 
still  hanging  acts  as  ballast  retained  and  equalizes  this 
effect.  It  is  also  of  immense  use  in  breaking  the  rate  of 
descent,  and  has  often  been  the  means  of  saving  life. 


CALCULATING  MACHINES. 

BY 

Archibald  Williams. 

THE  simplest  form  of  calculating  machine  was  the 
abacus,  on  which  the  schoolboys  of  ancient 
Greece  did  their  sums.  It  consisted  of  a  smooth 
board  with  a  narrow  rim,  on  which  were  arranged  rows 
of  pebbles,  bits  of  bone  or  ivory,  or  silver  coins.  By 
replacing  these  little  counters  by  sand,  strewn  evenly  all 
over  its  surface,  the  abacus  was  transformed  into  a  slate 


Erom  “  The  Romance  of  Modern  Mechanism.”  London. 


CALCULATING  MACHINES 


323 


for  writing  or  geometrical  lessons.  The  Romans  took  the 
abacus,  along  with  many  other  spoils  of  conquest,  from 
the  Greeks  and  improved  it,  dividing  it  by  means  of  cross- 
lines,  and  assigning  a  multiple  value  to  each  line  with 
regard  to  its  neighbors.  From  their  method  of  using  the 
calculi,  or  pebbles,  we  derive  our  English  verb,  to 
calculate. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  the  abacus  still  flourished,  and 
it  has  left  a  further  mark  on  our  language  by  giving  its 
name  to  the  Court  of  Exchequer,  in  which  was  a  table 
divided  into  chequered  squares  like  this  simple  school 
appliance. 

Step  by  step  further  improvements  were  made,  most 
important  among  them  being  those  of  Napier  of  Mer- 
cliiston,  whose  logarithms  vex  the  heads  of  our  youth,  and 
save  many  an  hour’s  calculation  to  people  who  under¬ 
stand  how  to  handle  them.  Sir  Samuel  Morland,  Gunter, 
and  Lamb  invented  other  contrivances  suitable  for  trigo¬ 
nometrical  problems.  Gersten  and  Pascal  harnessed 
trains  of  wheels  to  their  “  ready-reckoners,”  somewhat 
similar  to  the  well-known  cyclometer. 

All  these  devices  faded  into  insignificance  when  Mr. 
Charles  Babbage  came  on  the  scene  with  his  famous  cal¬ 
culator,  which  is  probably  the  most  ingenious  piece  of 
mechanism  ever  devised  by  the  human  brain.  To  describe 
the  “  Difference  Engine,”  as  it  is  called,  would  be  impos¬ 
sible,  so  complicated  is  its  character.  Dr.  Gardner,  who 
had  a  wonderful  command  of  language,  and  could  explain 
details  in  a  manner  so  lucid  that  his  words  could  almost 
always  be  understood  in  the  absence  of  diagrams,  occu¬ 
pied  twenty-five  pages  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  in  the 
endeavor  to  describe  its  working,  but  gave  several  fea¬ 
tures  up  as  a  bad  job.  Another  clever  writer,  Dr.  Samuel 
Smiles,  frankly  shuns  the  task,  and  satisfies  himself  with 
the  following  brief  description :  — 

6  ‘  Some  parts  of  the  apparatus  and  modes  of  action  are 
indeed  extraordinary  —  and,  perhaps,  none  more  so  than 
that  for  ensuring  accuracy  in  the  calculated  results  —  the 
machine  actually  correcting  itself,  and  rubbing  itself  back 


324 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


into  accuracy,  by  tlie  friction  of  tlie  adjacent  machinery! 
When  an  error  is  made  the  wheels  become  locked  and 
refuse  to  proceed;  thus  the  machine  must  go  rightly  or 
not  at  all  —  an  arrangement  as  nearly  resembling  volition 
as  anything  that  brass  and  steel  are  likely  to 
accomplish.”* 

Mr.  Babbage,  in  1822,  entered  upon  the  task  of  super¬ 
intending  the  construction  of  a  machine  for  calculating 
and  printing  mathematical  and  astronomical  tables.  He 
began  by  building  a  model,  which  produced  forty-four 
figures  per  minute.  The  next  year  the  Royal  Society 
reported  upon  the  invention,  which  appeared  so  promis¬ 
ing  that  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury  voted  Mr.  Babbage 
$7,500  to  help  him  perfect  his  apparatus. 

He  looked  about  for  a  first-rate  mechanician  of  high  in¬ 
telligence  as  well  as  of  extreme  manual  skill.  The  man 
he  wanted  appeared  in  Mr.  Joseph  Clement,  who  had 
already  made  his  name  as  the  inventor  of  a  drawing 
instrument,  a  self-acting  lathe,  a  self-centring  chuck,  and 
fluted  taps  and  dies.  Mr.  Clement  soon  produced  special 
tools  for  shaping  the  various  parts  of  the  machine.  So 
elaborate  was  the  latter,  that,  according  to  Hr.  Smiles, 
“  the  drawings  for  the  calculating  machinery  alone — 
not  to  mention  the  printing  machinery,  which  was  almost 
equally  elaborate  —  covered  not  less  than  four  hundred 
square  feet  of  surface !  ’  ’ 

You  will  easily  imagine,  especially  if  you  have  ever  had 
a  special  piece  of  apparatus  made  for  you  by  a  mechanic, 
that  the  bills  mounted  up  at  an  alarming  rate;  so  fast, 
indeed,  that  the  Government  began  to  ask,  Why  this  great 
expense,  and  so  little  visible  result?  After  seven  years’ 
work  the  engineers’  account  had  reached  $36,500,  and  Mr. 
Babbage  had  disbursed  an  additional  $35,000  out  of  his 
own  pocket.  Mr.  Clement  quarreled  with  his  employer  — 
possibly  because  he  harbored  suspicions  that  they  were 
both  off  on  a  wild-goose  chase — and  withdrew,  taking  all 
his  valuable  tools  with  him.  The  Government  soon  fol- 

*  Industrial  Biographies ,  Cliap.  XIII. 


m  i  m  mmmmmrn 


*  •'A:*  A 


Jl 


ASSEMBLING  THE  PARTS  OF  A  CALCULATING  MACHINE 

Probably  the  most  perfect  calculating  machine  that  is 
made  is  that  very  common  object  in  every  store,  the  cash 
register.  So  perfect  is  the  machinery  by  which  the  inter¬ 
changeable  parts  are  made  that  the  firm  which  constructs 
these  cash  registers  turns  out  one  complete  machine  every 
two  and  one-half  minutes,  adapted  to  the  currency  of  almost 
every  nation  in  the  world. 


CALCULATING  MACHINES 


327 


lowed  his  example,  and  poor  Babbage  was  left  witli  his 
half-finished  invention,  4  ‘  a  beautiful  fragment  of  a  great 
work.”  It  had  been  designed  to  calculate  as  far  as 
twenty  figures,  but  was  completed  only  sufficiently  to  go 
to  five  figures.  In  1862  it  occupied  a  prominent  place 
among  the  mechanical  exhibits  at  the  Great  Exhibition. 

We  learn,  with  some  satisfaction,  that  all  this  effort 
was  not  fated  to  be  fruitless.  Two  scientists  of  Stockholm 
—  Sclieutz  by  name  —  were  so  impressed  by  Dr.  Gard¬ 
ner’s  account  of  this  calculating  machine  that  they  carried 
Babbage’s  scheme  through,  and  after  twenty  years  of 
hard  work  completed  a  machine  which  seemed  to  be  al¬ 
most  capable  of  thinking.  The  English  Government  spent 
$7,500  on  a  copy,  which  at  Somerset  House  entered  upon 
the  routine  duty  of  working  out  annuity  and  other  tables 
for  the  Registrar-General. 

From  Babbage’s  wonderfully  and  fearfully  made  ma¬ 
chine  we  pass  to  a  calculator  which  to-day  may  be  seen  at 
work  in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  shops  and  offices. 

It  is  the  most  modern  substitute  for  the  open  till ;  and, 
by  the  aid  of  marvelous  interior  works,  acts  as  account- 
keeper  and  general  detective  to  the  money  transactions  of 
the  establishment  in  which  it  is  employed. 

There  are  very  many  types  of  Cash  Register,  and  as  it 
would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  them  all,  we  will  pass 
at  once  to  the  most  perfect  type  of  all,  known  to  the 
makers  and  vendors  as  “  Number  95.” 

This  register  has  at  the  top  an  oblong  window.  Dotted 
about  the  surface  confronting  the  operator  are,  in  the 
particular  machine  under  notice,  fifty-seven  keys;  six 
hearing  the  letters  A,  B,  D,  E,  H,  K;  three  the  words 
“  Paid  out,”  “  Charge,”  “  Received  on  Account;  ”  and 
the  others  money  values  ranging  from  one  cent  up. 

Everybody  who  goes  into  a  store  in  any  part  of  the 
country  is  familiar  with  the  outside  operation  of  the  cash 
register. 

But  what  has  been  going  on  inside  the  machine 
while  it  is  being  operated  ?  Let  us  lift  the  cover,  take  off 
the  case  of  the  printing  apparatus,  and  see. 


328  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

A  strip  of  paper  fed  through  the  printing  mechanism 
has  on  it  five  rows  of  figures,  letters,  etc.,  thus  — 

H  $1.00 

Pd.  A  .05 

B  .25 

Rc,  K  2.50 

Ch.  D  3.00 

The  proprietor  is,  therefore,  enabled  to  see  at  a  glance 
(1)  who  served  or  attended  to  a  customer,  (2)  what  kind 
of  business  he  did  with  him,  (3)  the  monetary  value  of 
the  transaction.  At  the  end  of  the  day  each  assistant 
sends  in  his  separate  account,  which  should  tally  exactly 
with  the  record  of  the  machine. 

Simultaneously  with  the  strip  printing,  special  counting 
apparatus  lias  been  (a)  adding  up  the  total  of  all  money 
taken  for  goods  ( b )  recording  the  number  of  times  the 
drawer  has  been  opened  for  each  purpose.  Here,  again, 
is  a  check  upon  the  records. 

This  ingenious  machine  not  only  protects  the  proprietor 
against  carelessness  or  dishonesty  on  the  part  of  his 
employees,  but  also  protects  the  latter  against  one  an¬ 
other.  If  only  one  drawer  and  letter  were  used  in  com¬ 
mon,  it  would  be  impossible  to  trace  an  error  to  the  guilty 
party.  The  lettering  s}^stem  also  serves  to  show  which  as¬ 
sistant  does  the  most  business. 

Where  a  cash  register  of  this  type  is  employed  every 
transaction  must  pass  through  its  hands  —  or  rather 
mechanism.  It  would  be  risky  for  an  assistant  not  to 
use  the  machine,  as  eyes  may  be  watching  him.  He  can¬ 
not  open  his  drawers  without  making  a  record;  nor  can 
he  make  a  record  without  first  closing  the  drawers;  so 
that  he  must  give  a  reason  for  each  use  of  the  register. 
If  he  used  somebody  else’s  letter,  the  ear  of  the  rightful 
owner  would  at  once  be  attracted  by  the  note  of  his  par¬ 
ticular  gong.  When  going  away  for  lunch,  or  on  business, 
a  letter  can  be  locked  by  means  of  a  special  key,  which  fits 
none  of  the  other  five  locks. 

The  printing  mechanism  is  particularly  ingenious. 
Every  morning  the  date  is  set  by  means  of  index-screws : 


CALCULATING  MACHINES 


329 


and  a  consecutive  numbering  train  is  put  back  to  zero. 
A  tliird  division  accommodates  a  circular  “  electro  ” 
block  for  printing  the  advertisements,  and  a  fourth  divi¬ 
sion  the  figure  wheels. 

The  turn  given  to  the  handle  passes  a  length  of  the 
ticket  strip  through  a  slot  —  prints  the  date,  the  number 
of  the  ticket,  an  advertisement  on  the  back,  the  assistant’s 
letter,  the  nature  of  the  business  done,  and  feeds  the 
paper  on  to  the  figures  which  give  the  finishing  touch.  A 
knife  cuts  off  the  ticket,  and  a  special  lever  shoots  it  out 
of  the  slot. 

The  National  Cash  Register  Company,  for  prudential 
reasons,  do  not  wish  the  details  of  the  internal  machinery 
to  be  described ;  nor  would  it  be  an  easy  task  even  were 
the  permission  granted.  So  we  must  imagine  the  extreme 
intricacy  of  the  levers  and  wheels  which  perform  all  the 
tasks  enumerated,  and  turn  aside  to  consider  the  origin 
and  manufacture  of  the  register,  which  are  both  of 
interest. 

The  origin  of  the  cash  register  is  rather  nebulous,  be¬ 
cause  about  thirty  years  ago  several  men  were  working  on 
the  same  idea.  It  first  appeared  as  a  practical  machine 
in  the  offices  of  John  and  James  Ritty,  who  owned  stores 
and  coal  mines  at  Dayton,  Ohio.  James  Ritty  helped  and 
largely  paid  for  the  first  experiments.  He  needed  a 
mechanical  cashier  for  his  own  business,  and  says  that, 
while  on  an  ocean  steamer  en  route  to  London  the  revolv¬ 
ing  machinery  gave  him  the  suggestion  worked  out,  on  liis 
return  to  Dayton,  in  the  first  dial-machine.  This  gave 
way  to  the  key-machine  with  its  display  tablet,  or  in¬ 
dicator,  held  up  by  a  supporting  bar  moved  back  by 
knuckles  on  the  vertical  tablet  rod. 

Mr.  John  Ritty  gives  an  account  differing  from  that  of 
his  brother;  but  the  two  can  probably  be  reconciled  by 
supposing  that  the  first  ideas  occurred  simultaneously  and 
were  worked  out  in  common. 

Late  one  summer  night,  before  dispersing  for  home,  a 
group  of  men  were  in  his  store.  One  of  them  said  to  the 
proprietor,  “  If  you  had  a  machine  there  to  register  the 


330 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


casli  received,  yon  would  get  more  of  it,”  and  to  the  state¬ 
ment  both  owner  and  his  clerks  assented.  This  raised  a 
laugh.  But  Bitty  who,  in  spite  of  a  large  business,  which 
ranged  over  everything  from  a  needle  to  a  haystack,  did 
not  make  much  profit  by  his  sales,  took  the  suggestion 
seriously,  and  put  on  his  thinking-cap,  with  the  result  that 
the  first  machine  was  patented,  and  profits  became  very 
greatly  increased. 

Before  his  machine  had  been  perfected  a  rival  was  in 
the  field.  Mr.  Thomas  Carney,  a  man  who  had  seen  much 
life  as  a  lumber  merchant,  captain  during  the  Civil  War, 
explorer,  and  railroad  promoter,  settled  down  in  1884,  at 
Chicago,  to  the  manufacture  of  coin-changers.  “  When 
in  various  businesses,”  he  says,  66  we  used  gold  and  silver 
only,  and  it  seemed  to  be  a  sheer  necessity  to  have  some¬ 
thing  of  a  money-changer  to  assist  us  in  handling  it  and 
making  change.  The  custom  then  was  to  throw  the  dif¬ 
ferent  coins  into  a  special  receptacle  marked  for  each.  I 
invented,  and  in  my  own  shop  built  this  coin-changer,  the 
keys  of  which,  when  touched,  would,  through  the  tube, 
drop  the  coin  into  the  hand  as  wanted.  At  Chicago  we 
made  five  or  six  hundred  of  these  coin-changers,  but  by 
mistake  placed  the  price  too  low,  and  after  some  confer¬ 
ence  I  became  assured  that  there  was  not  enough  money 
in  it.  A  rich  Chicago  manufacturer  had  become  familiar 
with  the  urgent  need  of  a  cash  register,  and  the  losses 
which  followed  in  business  without  one.  The  National,  at 
Dayton,  had  then  been  invented,  but  had  not  then  been 
perfected  as  it  has  been  since.  Parties  at  Chicago  agreed 
to  put  up  the  money  if  I  would  invent  what  would  answer 
the  purpose  of  a  cash  register  and  make  a  marketable 
machine.  I  went  home  and  gave  the  matter  some  hard 
thinking,  and  talking  with  my  son  about  the  matter  one 
night,  I  looked  up  at  the  clock  and  said,  ‘  Why,  Harry, 
there  is  the  right  thing.  Sixty  minutes  make  an  hour; 
one  hundred  cents  make  a  dollar.  All  I  have  got  to  do 
is  to  change  the  wheels  a  little,  put  some  keys  into  it,  and 
there  will  be  a  thing  which  will  register  cents,  dimes,  and 
dollars,  just  as  that  clock  will  register  time  in  minutes 


CALCULATING  MACHINES 


331 


and  hours.’  In  clocks  the  minute  wheel,  when  it  has  re¬ 
volved  to  its  sixty  point,  throws  its  added  result  of  sixty 
minutes  over  on  to  another  wheel,  which  takes  up  the 
story,  with  one  hour  in  place  of  the  old  sixty  minutes. 
The  first  wheel  then  begins  again  and  goes  its  round.  A 
second  complete  revolution  of  the  minute  wheel  throws 
another  sixty  minutes  on  to  the  hour,  and  gives  one  more 
hour  registered,  making  two  hours,  and  so  on.  I  took 
some  wheels,  and  with  pasteboard  made  hands  and  a 
machine.  It  was  very  rough,  but  I  took  it  to  my  friends 
and  explained  it  to  them.  We  went  on,  but  encountering 
difficulties  and  obstacles,  we  merged  our  whole  enterprise 
in  the  National.  I  followed  it,  and  have  since  invented, 
worked,  and  helped  along  in  the  National  Cash  Register 
service.  I  developed  the  No.  35  machine  which  the  com¬ 
pany  began  on  and  uses  yet.  It  is  now  in  use  in  every 
civilized  country,  for  it  can  be  made  to  register  English 
money  and  any  decimal  currency.” 

In  1883  Dayton  contained  five  families.  The  following 
year  Colonel  Robert  Patterson  bought  a  large  property 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  helped  to  develop  a  small  town, 
which  has  since  grown  into  a  thriving  manufacturing 
centre.  His  two  sons,  John  H.  Patterson  and  Frank  J. 
Patterson,  brought  out  all  the  original  proprietors  of  the 
National  Cash  Register,  greatly  improved  the  machine’s 
mechanism,  and  built  the  huge  factory  which  employs 
about  4,000  men,  women,  and  girls,  and  is  one  of  the  best- 
equipped  establishments  in  the  world  to  promote  both  an 
economical  output  and  the  comfort  of  the  employees. 
The  Company’s  buildings  at  Dayton  cover  892,144  square 
feet  of  floor  space,  and  utilize  140  acres  of  ground.  In 
convenience  and  attractiveness,  and  for  light,  heat,  and 
ventilation,  and  all  sanitary  things,  these  structures  are 
designed  to  be  models  of  any  used  for  factory  purposes. 
A  machine  is  made  and  sold  every  2%  minutes  in  the 
Dayton,  Berlin,  and  Toronto  factories  collectively.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  its  destination,  it  records  dollars,  shillings, 
marks,  kronen,  korona,  francs,  kroner,  guldens,  pesetas, 
pesos,  milreis,  rupees,  or  rubles.  Registers  are  also 
made  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  Celestials  and  the  Japanese. 


332 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


So  necessary  is  it  for  these  machines  to  be  ever  im¬ 
proving,  that  the  Company,  with  a  wisdom  that  prevails 
more  largely,  perhaps,  in  the  United  States  than  else¬ 
where,  offer  substantial  rewards  to  the  employee  who 
records  in  a  book  kept  specially  for  the  purpose  any  sug¬ 
gestion  which  the  committee,  after  due  examination,  con¬ 
sider  likely  to  improve  some  detail  of  mechanism  or 
manufacture.  Five  departments  are  entirely  devoted  to 
experiments  carried  out  by  a  corps  of  inventors  working 
with  a  special  body  of  skilled  mechanics.  New  patents 
accrue  so  fast  as  a  result  of  this  organized  research  that 
the  National  Company  now  owns  537  letters  patent  in 
the  United  States  and  394  in  foreign  countries. 

Many  ideas  come  from  outside.  If  they  appear  profit¬ 
able  they  are  bought  and  turned  over  to  the  Patents  De¬ 
partment,  which  hands  them  on  to  the  experimenters. 
These  build  an  experimental  model,  which  differs  in  many 
respects  from  the  types  hitherto  manufactured.  A  cash 
register  must  be  above  all  things  strong,  so  that  it  can 
bear  a  heavy  blow  without  getting  out  of  order,  and  must 
retain  its  accuracy  under  all  conditions. 

The  model  finished,  it  goes  before  the  inspectors,  who 
thump  it,  hammer  it,  almost  turn  it  inside  out,  and  send 
it  back  to  the  Factory  Committee  with  reports  on  any 
defects  that  may  have  come  to  light.  If  the  inspectors 
can  only  knock  the  machine  out  of  time  they  consider 
that  they  have  done  their  duty;  for  they  argue  that,  if 
weaknesses  thus  developed  are  put  right,  no  purchaser 
will  ever  be  able  to  dislocate  the  machinery  if  he  stops 
short  of  an  actual  “  brutal  assault  with  violence.” 

Next  comes  the  building  of  the  commercial  type,  which 
will  be  sold  by  the  thousand.  The  machine  goes  down  to 
the  tool-makers,  a  select  board  of  seventy-five  members, 
who  list  all  the  parts,  and  say  how  many  drill-jigs,  mills, 
fixtures,  gauges,  etc.,  are  necessary  to  make  every  part. 
Then  they  draw  out  an  approximate  estimate  of  the  cost 
of  producing  the  tools,  and  after  they  have  listed  the 
parts,  they  turn  them  over  to  the  various  departments, 
such  as  the  drafting-room,  blacksmiths  ’  shop,  pattern 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


333 


shop,  foundry,  etc.,  after  which  the  various  parts  are 
machined  up.  Then  the  tool-maker  assembles  together 
the  various  tools,  and  makes  a  number  of  the  parts  that 
each  tool  is  designed  for ;  so  that  when  all  the  tools  have 
done  their  preliminary  work,  the  makers  possess  about 
fifty  machines  “  in  bits.”  These  are  assembled,  to  prove 
whether  the  tools  do  their  business  efficiently.  If  any 
part  shows  an  inclination  “to  jam,”  or  otherwise  mis¬ 
behave  itself,  the  tool  responsible  is  altered  till  its  prod¬ 
ucts  are  satisfactory. 

Then,  and  only  then  —  a  period  of  perhaps  two  years 
may  have  elapsed  since  the  model  was  first  put  in  hand  — 
the  Company  begins  to  entertain  a  prospect  of  getting 
back  some  of  the  money — any  sum  up  to  $250,000  — 
spent  in  preparations.  But  they  know  that  if  people  will 
only  buy,  they  won’t  have  much  fault  to  find  with  their 
purchase.  “Preparation  bring  success  ”  is  the  motto  of 
the  N.  C.  E.  So  the  Company  spares  no  money,  and  is 
content  to  have  $125,000  locked  up  in  its  automatic  screw¬ 
making  machines  alone. 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM.' 

BY 

Charles  R.  Gibson, 

Associate  of  the  Society  of  Electrical  Engineers. 

WHAT  IS  ELECTRICITY  ? 

ALMOST  the  whole  of  our  knowledge  concerning 
electricity  has  been  acquired  during  the  last  few 
generations,  and  the  varied  practical  purposes  to 
which  it  has  been  applied  are  all  of  so  recent  a  date  that 
electricity  itself  has  come  to  be  vaguely  thought  of  by 
some  as  one  of  our  modern  inventions.  Some  people 


From  u  The  Romance  of  Modern  Electricity.”  London. 


334  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

have  even  a  liazy  idea  that  onr  electric  power  stations  are 
busy  manufacturing  a  mysterious  material  fluid,  called 
electricity,  in  something  the  same  sense  as  one  may  speak 
of  a  gas-work  producing  gas. 

In  the  minds  of  most  people  there  is  a  mysterious 
vagueness  in  connection  with  all  thoughts  about  electric¬ 
ity.  We  must  picture  it  as  a  material  fluid  in  order  to 
think  conveniently  of  it,  and  yet  we  know  it  is  not  a  some¬ 
thing  which  we  can  lay  our  hands  on.  It  will  be  sufficient 
for  our  present  purpose  to  try  and  form  some  conception 
as  to  the  general  nature  of  that  which  has  come  to  be 
called  electricity.  Let  us  suppose  that  we  are  endowed 
with  the  respiratory  organs  of  amphibious  animals,  and 
let  us  go,  in  our  imaginations,  to  the  bottom  of  the  ocean. 
We  find  ourselves  surrounded  with  water,  and  we  notice 
that  by  moving  our  arms  rapidly  through  the  water  we 
can  disturb  it,  and  as  we  become  accustomed  to  our  en¬ 
vironment  we  find  that  we  are  able  to  set  up  quite  a 
variety  of  disturbances  in  this  surrounding  medium. 

Coming  back  to  real  life,  we  may,  in  a  similar  way, 
imagine  ourselves  immersed  in  a  great  ocean  of  “  some¬ 
thing  ”  which  we  do  not  understand,  but  to  which  scien¬ 
tists  have  given  the  name  of  the  ether.  (This  word,  of 
course,  has  no  connection  whatever  with  the  ether  ob¬ 
tained  from  alcohol  and  used  as  an  anaesthetic.)  We  are 
able,  by  many  different  means,  to  set  up  disturbances  in 
this  ether  of  space,  and,  for  the  present,  we  may  consider 
the  word  electricity  to  mean  a  disturbance  of  this  ether, 
and  look  upon  electric  batteries  and  dynamos  merely  as 
pumps  for  affecting  this  ether  ocean. 

We  really  know  nothing  as  to  the  nature  of  this  ether, 
so  that  it  would  not  be  unreasonable  for  an  outsider  to 
suggest  that  the  ether  itself  might  be  merely  a  myth,  or 
an  entirely  mistaken  idea,  in  the  mind  of  the  scientist. 
To  the  scientist  the  ether  is  as  real  as  the  air  he  breathes, 
although  its  nature  is  shrouded  in  mystery;  its  presence 
must  become  real  to  every  thoughtful  person. 

If  two  men  are  walking  along  a  road,  one  in  front  of 
the  other,  and  the  one  immediately  behind  wishes  to  com- 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


335 


municate  with  his  friend,  he  might  touch  him  on  the 
shoulder  and  thus  make  his  arm  a  medium  of  connection 
between  them;  or,  if  he  happened  to  be  a  few  feet  farther 
distant,  he  might  tap  him  on  the  leg  with  his  walking- 
stick,  and  so  on.  If  the  distance  apart  were  still  greater, 
and  the  man  were  sure  of  his  friend’s  good  temper,  he 
might  throw  some  object  at  him,  but  in  each  case  the 
medium  of  communication  would  be  very  apparent.  If 
the  distance  were  still  increased  the  one  man  might  still 
communicate  with  the  other  by  shouting  or  whistling, 
thus  using  the  air  as  a  medium  between  them.  From  a 
distance  beyond  earshot  he  might  still  attract  his  friend’s 
attention  by  waving  his  arms,  provided  his  friend’s  eyes 
were  not  turned  away  from  him. 

In  the  last  mentioned  case  there  must  have  been  some 
medium,  other  than  the  air,  between  the  two  men.  If 
you  hold  a  loose  electric  lamp  bulb  between  you  and  the 
window  you  receive  light  through  the  bulb,  though  it 
contains  no  air.  We  receive  light  from  the  sun  across 
a  space  of  more  than  ninety  millions  of  miles,  and  our 
atmosphere  only  extends,  at  most,  a  few  hundred  miles, 
There  must  be  some  medium  between  us  and  the  sun. 

If  a  man  is  standing  upon  the  seashore  and  looking 
out  to  sea  he  observes  a  steamer  moving  along,  followed 
by  a  large  sailing  ship  which,  having  no  sails  set,  still 
keeps  pace  at  constant  distance  behind  the  steamer.  He 
at  once  concludes  that  there  is  some  medium  of  connection 
between  the  two  vessels,  although  lie  sees  no  signs  of  any, 
and  his  experience  suggests  a  rope  or  cable.  Surely  when 
we  see  a  magnetic  needle  follow  the  direction  in  which  it 
is  led  by  a  neighboring  magnet  our  reason  insists  that 
there  must  be  some  medium  of  communication  between 
them,  and  it  is  to  this  medium  that  scientists  have  given 
the  name  of  the  ether. 

While  the  existence  of  the  ether  was  only  established 
about  a  century  ago,  it  is  interesting  to  note  what  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  suggested  a  century  earlier  than  that  date: 
“  Perhaps  the  whole  frame  of  nature  may  be  nothing  but 
various  contextures  of  some  certain  ethereal  spirits  or 


336 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


vapors  .  .  .  wrought  at  first  by  the  immediate  hand  of 
the  Creator  and  ever  after  by  the  power  of  nature.  ’ ’ 

You  will  picture  the  ether  as  a  vast  ocean,  not  merely 
filling  all  space,  but  permeating  all  bodies,  no  matter  how 
solid.  A  piece  of  hard  steel  will  be  thought  of  as  having 
its  molecules  all  grouped  together  and  being,  on  an 
infinitely  small  scale,  analogous  to  a  heap  of  cannon  balls ; 
and  just  as  there  would  be  air  around  ‘each  cannon  ball, 
so  will  the  ether  be  among  the  molecules  of  steel. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  really  think  of  this  ether  as 
being  immaterial  in  the  sense  in  which  that  word  is  com¬ 
monly  used,  but  we  must  realize  that  it  is  something  quite 
different  from  ordinary  matter.  One  cannot  think  of 
anything  immaterial  without  using  some  material  symbol, 
and  Sir  Oliver  Lodge  has  suggested  that  we  should 
picture  the  ether  as  a  continuous  jelly. 

If  anyone  puts  his  head  out  of  the  window  of  a  railway 
train,  traveling  at  a  high  speed,  the  great  resistance 
offered  by  the  air  to  his  passage  through  it  is  most  ap¬ 
parent.  The  ether  certainly  offers  no  such  resistance, 
for,  standing  at  the  earth’s  equator,  a  man  is  flying  round 
and  round  with  this  great  rotating  globe  through  the 
ether  at  a  speed  more  than  ten  times  greater  than  an 
express  train,  and  yet  our  world  is  not  quickly  slowing 
down,  as  it  certainly  would  be  if  offered  any  resistance 
by  the  ether. 

A  more  impressive  picture  may  be  obtained  by  think¬ 
ing,  first  of  all,  of  the  great  resistance  offered  by  our 
atmosphere  to  the  descent  of  meteors  which  reach  it  daily 
in  shoals,  traveling  at  a  speed  more  than  one  thousand 
times  that  of  an  express  train.  Even  away  up  near  the 
limit  of  our  atmosphere,  where  the  air  is  very  thin  indeed, 
so  much  resistance  is  offered  to  these  meteors  that  they 
quickly  incandesce  and  dissipate.  In  our  journey  with 
this  earth  around  the  sun,  we  are  traveling  through  the 
ether  at  a  speed  very  similar  to  that  of  the  meteor,  and 
yet  we  suffer  no  inconvenience.  It  must  therefore  be 
clear  to  us  that  whatever  the  ether  may  be  it  is  quite 
frictionless,  and  is,  therefore,  something  quite  distinct 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


337 


from  ordinary  matter.  It  is,  no  doubt,  needless  to  re¬ 
mark  that  our  atmosphere  is  flying  through  the  ether  with 
us,  the  air  being  acted  upon  by  gravitation  just  as  we  our¬ 
selves  are,  and  a  very  good  thing  for  us  that  it  keeps  pace 
with  us. 

I  can  imagine  someone  saying  that  if  he  were  assured 
that  this  ether  had  weight,  be  it  ever  so  little,  he  could 
then  give  it  a  place  among  the  realities  of  life.  It  is 
quite  clear,  however,  that  the  ether  has  no  weight,  or  it 
would  offer  some  resistance  to  any  disturbance  in  it.  Can 
anything  really  exist  and  yet  have  no  weight  whatever! 
All  matter  certainly  has  weight,  but  what  do  we  mean  by 
having  weight!  We  may  say  that  weight  is  the  measure 
of  gravitation,  or  the  attraction  between  any  body  and 
the  earth,  but  we  must  keep  in  mind  the  larger  fact  that 
every  particle  of  matter  attracts  every  other  particle,  and 
that  this  attractive  power  between  even  very  small  objects 
may  be  measured  by  delicate  apparatus.  The  amount  of 
attraction  between  two  bodies  of  even  moderate  size  is, 
of  course,  quite  negligible  as  compared  with  the  effect  of 
the  vast  mass  of  our  globe  on  all  other  bodies  on,  or  near, 
its  surface. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  our  present  purpose  that  we  try 
to  form  any  definite  conception  of  what  gravitation  may 
be,  but  let  us,  for  the  nonce,  suppose  that  the  attractive 
power  between  two  bodies  is  due  to  some  internal  motion 
in  the  small  particles,  or  atoms  of  matter,  and  that  this 
motion  is  common  to  all  atoms  of  matter.  We  then  agree, 
for  the  sake  of  our  mental  picture,  that  it  is  this  motion 
which  gives  to  matter  the  attractive  power,  or  what  we 
call  weight,  and  it  must  be  clear  to  us  that  if  this  motion 
were  absent  from  whatever  matter  is  made  of,  then  the 
attractive  power  would  not  exist,  so  that  the  “  some¬ 
thing  ’  ’  without  this  motion  would  not  be  matter,  and 
would  not  have  weight.  If  we  picture  this  ‘  ‘  something  ’  ’ 
as  being  the  ether  we  can  then  imagine  the  ether  as  hav¬ 
ing  no  weight,  but  if  it  be  given  the  necessary  mo+ion  it 
may  become  what  we  call  matter. 

Vol.  IV  —  20 


338  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

The  most  recent  theory,  known  as  the  electric  theory 
of  matter,  supposes  the  ether  as  the  fundamental  basis, 
and  that,  given  certain  motions,  it  forms  “  atoms  ”  of 
electricity,  and  that  it  is  the  grouping  together  of  myriads 
of  these  that  forms  an  atom  of  matter.  It  will  however 
be  sufficient  to  picture  electricity  as  being  a  disturbance 
of  the  ether,  and  it  will  be  convenient  to  think  of  elec¬ 
tricity  as  analogous  to  a  mysterious  fluid,  while  we  keep 
in  mind  that  we  are  merely  doing  so  as  an  aid  to  thought. 

We  have  also  the  ether  disturbances  known  as  “  light  ” 
and  “  radiant  heat,”  which  are  intimately  connected  with 
what  we  call  electricity.  It  is  possible  that  many  of  us 
may  live  to  see  one  scientific  name  denote  all  ether  dis¬ 
turbances,  including  the  phenomena  of  cohesion  and 
gravitation. 

The  unsolved  problem  of  the  present  day  is  not  so 
much  that  indicated  by  the  query  ‘  ‘  What  is  Electricity  ?  ’  ’ 
as  the  more  fundamental  question  —  What  is  the  ether? 

WHAT  IS  MAGNETISM? 

From  our  childhood  we  have  all  had  some  knowledge 
of  magnetism  in  connection  with  the  compass  needle,  and 
no  doubt  many  of  us  gained  further  knowdedge  from 
magnetic  toys  presented  to  us  to  enable  us  to  become  ex¬ 
pert  anglers.  In  any  case  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
remark  that  a  magnet  attracts  iron,  or  that  a  light  magnet 
balanced  upon  a  pivot  will  have  one  end  or  “  pole  ”  point¬ 
ing  north  and  the  other  south. 

There  is  a  third  and  a  very  remarkable  property  o? 
magnets;  a  simple  one  and  yet  one  that  often  leads  to 
confusion.  Every  magnet  has,  of  course,  a  north  and  a 
south-seeking  end  or  ‘ 1  pole,  ’  ’  and  these  two  ends  are 
usually  brought  close  together  by  making  the  magnet  in 
a  horseshoe  form,  in  order  to  have  the  attractive  pull  of 
both  poles  combined.  It  is  more  convenient  for  experi¬ 
mental  purposes  to  make  the  magnet  in  the  form  of  a 
straight  bar,  so  that  the  effect  of  each  pole  may  be  ex¬ 
amined  by  itself.  In  order  to  distinguish  the  poles  it  is 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


339 


customary  to  mark  the  north-seeking  pole  with  the  letter 
N,  or  to  paint  that  end  or  mark  it  in  some  way  so  that 
it  is  quite  easy  to  discern  the  north  pole,  while  the  plain 
end  is,  of  course,  the  south. 

If  the  north  pole  of  a  bar-magnet  be  brought  near  to 
the  north  pole  of  a  magnetic  needle  pivoted  upon  a  stand, 
the  north  pole  of  the  needle  will  fly  away  from  the  north 
pole  of  the  bar-magnet,  but  the  south  pole  will  come  round 
and  be  attracted.  The  south  pole  of  the  magnet  and  the 
south  pole  of  the  needle  will  also  repel  each  other,  but 
the  two  unlike  poles  will  always  attract  one  another. 
This  is  certainly  very  strange  —  the  poles  all  look  exactly 
alike  and  they  will  all  attract  iron  equally  well,  but  their 
behavior  towards  each  other  is  so  different;  the  norths 
will  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  norths,  the  souths  are 
equally  repellent  to  one  another,  but  a  north  and  a  south 
are  always  attractive  to  each  other. 

If  two  north  poles  repel  each  other,  how,  then,  is  the 
north  pole  of  a  compass  needle  attracted  by  the  north 
pole  of  the  earth?  In  point  of  fact  the  end  of  the  compass 
needles  pointing  to  the  north  is  of  opposite  polarity,  but 
it  would  be  confusing  to  call  this  north-pointing  end  a 
“  south  ”  pole,  although  the  Chinese  and  the  French  have 
done  so.  We  prefer  to  call  it  the  north-seeking  pole,  or, 
in  short,  the  north  pole,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  true  meaning  is  the  north-pointing  or  seeking  pole. 
One  does  not  see  any  magnet  in  the  modern  mariner’s 
compass,  as  the  compass  card  itself  is  pivoted  at  its 
centre,  and  has  a  number  of  small  magnets  fixed  to  its 
underside,  so  that  the  card  itself  takes  up  its  correct  posi¬ 
tion,  indicating  the  different  cardinal  points.  In  this  way 
there  can  be  no  confusion,  as  was  sometimes  the  case 
previously  when  an  inexperienced  person  could  not  tell 
whether  the  painted  or  the  plain  end  of  the  needle  was 
the  north-seeking  pole. 

If  two  bar-magnets  are  used  together,  having  the  two 
north  poles  and  the  two  south  poles  respectively  touching 
each  other,  then  a  more  powerful  magnet  is  the  result, 
as  one  would  quite  anticipate.  If,  however,  the  relative 


340 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


position  of  the  magnets  to  each  other  be  reversed,  so  that 
a  north  pole  and  a  south  pole  lie  in  contact  at  each  end, 
all  trace  of  magnetism  disappears.  One  cannot  now  even 
lift  a  small  iron  nail  with  these  two  magnets,  but  when 
separated  again  they  are  each  just  as  attractive  as  before.  • 
We  have  almost  ceased  to  wonder  at  this  strange  fact, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  remarkable  for  that,  and  the 
peculiar  behavior  of  these  magnetic  poles  to  each  other 
is  of  the  very  greatest  importance  to  us  in  practice. 

While  the  early  experimenters  had  been  able  to  make 
magnets  by  rubbing  pieces  of  iron  with  a  natural  magnet 
or  lodestone,  and  while  they  also  had  observed  a  piece  of 
“  rubbed  ”  amber  attracting  light  bodies  to  it,  there  is 
doubt  if  it  ever  occurred  to  them  that  there  might  be 
any  connection  between  magnetism  and  electricity.  Later 
on  the  idea  did  become  definite,  and  in  the  year  1819 
Hans  Christian  Oersted,  a  Danish  professor,  found  that 
a  magnetic  needle  when  brought  near  to  a  copper  wire 
carrying  a  current  of  electricity  behaved  in  a  strange 
fashion.  The  magnet  found  the  wire  of  more  attraction 
than  the  north  and  south  poles  of  the  earth,  so  that  it 
would  no  longer  act  as  a  compass  needle  while  it  re¬ 
mained  in  the  neighborhood  of  an  electric  current.  If 
the  magnet  is  placed  above  or  below  the  wire,  the  magnet 
will  swing  round  and  take  up  a  position  at  right  angles 
to  the  wire.  Whether  the  north  pole  of  the  magnet 
comes  out  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left  hand  depends 
upon  the  direction  in  which  the  current  is  flowing  in  the 
wire. 

For  the  present  it  will  be  sufficient  to  note  that  if  we 
send  the  current  along  the  wire  in  one  direction  the  north 
pole  of  the  needle  swings  out  to  the  right  hand,  and  when 
we  send  the  current  in  the  opposite  direction  the  north 
pole  of  the  needle  turns  out  to  the  left  hand. 

The  needle  and  the  wire  may  be  fixed  in  a  vertical  or 
upright  position,  and  the  result  is  the  same.  If  instead  of 
a  single  wire  passing  above  or  below  the  needle  the  wire 
be  continued  round  and  round  to  form  a  coil,  the  result 
is  greatly  enhanced.  This  exceedingly  strange  attitude 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


341 


of  the  magnet  towards  the  electric  current  is  of  immense 
importance  to  us. 

After  this  connection  between  electricity  and  mag¬ 
netism  had  been  discovered,  experimenters  would  natur¬ 
ally  wonder  if  the  current  had  any  effect  upon  iron  that 
had  not  been  magnetised.  Very  soon  a  French  scientist, 
Francois  Arago,  was  able  to  show  that  the  wire  carrying 
an  electric  current  did  affect  small  tilings  of  iron.  The 
tilings  each  appeared  to  become  a  little  magnet,  and  if  a 
quantity  of  tilings  was  placed  in  a  glass  tube  and  a  strong 
current  was  sent  through  a  wire  wound  around  the  tube, 
the  tube  of  filings  became  quite  an  appreciable  magnet. 
If  a  piece  of  soft  iron,  instead  of  a  tube  of  tilings,  was 
placed  inside  the  coil  of  wire  carrying  a  current,  the  iron 
became  quite  a  powerful  magnet,  but  as  soon  as  the  cur¬ 
rent  ceased  in  the  wire  the  magnetism  disappeared  too. 

If  one  takes  an  ordinary  kitchen  poker  and  wraps  an 
insulated  wire  round  and  round  it  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  whenever  the  two  ends  of  the  wire  are  connected  to 
a  battery  the  poker  becomes  a  powerful  magnet,  and  will 
support  pieces  of  iron,  such  as  keys,  scissors,  nails,  etc. 
As  soon  as  the  current  is  stopped  in  the  wire  by  discon¬ 
necting  it  from  the  battery,  down  tumble  all  the  objects, 
for  the  magnetism  has  vanished  from  the  poker.  Here 
we  have  a  most  useful  kind  of  magnet,  which  will  attract 
or  let  go  at  will ;  and  such  magnets  or  electro-magnets  are 
of  the  very  greatest  importance  to  us  in  telegraphs,  tele¬ 
phones,  dynamos,  motors,  etc. 

Electro-magnets  are  made  of  soft  iron,  but  if  hard  steel 
were  substituted  inside  the  coil  of  wire,  the  steel  would  be 
much  slower  in  replying  to  the  influence  of  the  current, 
and  when  the  current  was  stopped  it  would  be  found  that 
the  magnetism  remained,  and  the  wire  could  then  be 
removed.  The  steel  magnets  thus  made  are  called  per¬ 
manent  magnets,  to  distinguish  them  from  electro-mag¬ 
nets,  which  are  merely  temporary.  The  magnetic  needle 
in  the  compass  is  of  course  a  steel  magnet,  as  also  were 
the  toy  magnets  of  our  youth. 

Iron,  like  all  other  substances,  is  built  up  of  very  small 


342 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


particles,  called  molecules,  which  are  so  exceedingly  small 
that  they  are  far  beyond  the  reach  of  the  most  powerful 
microscopes.  Of  course,  we  must  magnify  these  mole¬ 
cules  immensely  in  our  minds  when  we  think  of  them,  no 
matter  how  small  we  try  to  picture  them. 

Each  of  these  molecules  of  iron  is  itself  a  tiny  magnet, 
having  of  necessity  a  north  and  a  south  pole.  In  the  iron 
these  are  all  lying  higgledy-piggledy,  the  pull  of  one 
counteracting  the  pull  of  another,  so  that  no  trace  of 
magnetism  is  found  in  the  iron. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  a  magnet  inside  a  coil 
of  wire  will  turn  round  and  set  itself  at  right  angles  to 
the  coil  whenever  a  current  of  electricity  is  passing  in  the 
wire.  Therefore,  each  molecule  in  the  iron  core  of  the 
electro-magnet  will  behave  in  the  same  fashion,  for  each 
molecule  being  a  tiny  magnet  will  turn  round  and  set 
itself  at  right  angles  to  the  wire,  with  its  north  pole  in 
one  direction  and  its  south  pole  in  the  opposite  direction. 
All  the  combined  north  poles  of  these  midget  magnets 
now  acting  together  produce  a  very  effective  power  of 
attraction,  as  also  do  the  united  forces  of  the  south  poles. 
Thus  at  the  one  end  of  an  electro-magnet  is  found  a  north 
pole  and  at  the  other  end  a  south  pole,  no  matter  whether 
the  magnet  be  a  straight  bar  or  bent  in  horseshoe  form. 

It  is  quite  reasonable  to  suppose  that  in  hard  steel 
these  tiny  molecules  are  so  firmly  bound  together  that 
when  the  current  once  gets  them  turned  round  they  can¬ 
not  readily  swing  back  again,  in  which  case  we  have  a 
permanent  magnet.  On  the  other  hand,  in  soft  iron  the 
molecules  will  reply  much  quicker  to  the  controlling 
current,  but  will  only  remain  with  their  north  poles  all  in 
one  direction  as  long  as  the  neighboring  current  holds 
them  there;  as  soon  as  the  current  is  withdrawn  thev 
swing  back  to  their  normal  higgledy-piggledy  condition.1 

One  may  imagine  the  turning  on  of  the  current  to  be, 
in  military  parlance,  the  command  of  “  Eyes  front  ”  to 

*It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  a  real  topsy-turvy  condition,  for  if 
the  tiny  magnets  were  forming  complete  magnetic  chains  or  rings  the 
absence  of  any  outward  effect  would  be  just  the  same. 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


343 


this  regiment  of  molecules ;  the  withdrawal  of  the  current 
to  be  the  “  Stand  at  ease  ”  or  “  Stand  easy.” 

If  this  generally  accepted  theory  of  magnetism  be 
correct,  then  one  can  foresee  what  will  happen  if  a  so- 
called  permanent  steel  magnet  be  raised  to  a  red  heat. 
As  its  molecules  will  be  set  in  rapid  vibratory  movement 
they  will  be  given  an  opportunity  of  freeing  themselves 
from  the  artificial  position  into  which  they  were  forced 
by  the  effect  of  the  electric  current.  This  exactly  corre¬ 
sponds  with  what  does  take  place,  for  no  trace  of 
magnetism  is  found  in  the  “  permanent  ”  magnet  when  it 
has  been  thoroughly  heated.  For  the  same  reason  one 
must  be  careful  not  to  knock  these  steel  magnets  about, 
for  by  hammering  them  one  may  assist  the  molecules  back 
to  their  normal  positions. 

Strange  to  say,  when  a  piece  of  iron  rod  is  magnetized 
it  becomes  longer  and  thinner,  but  this  is  quite  in  keeping 
with  a  turning  movement  provided  the  molecule  is  of  ir¬ 
regular  shape.  The  metals  nickel  and  cobalt  are  also 
magnetic  substances,  and  indeed  it  appears  as  though  all 
matter  is  more  or  less  magnetic,  but  iron  stands  out  head 
and  shoulders  above  all  other  materials  in  its  magnetic 
properties.  It  has  been  found  possible,  however,  to  pro¬ 
duce  alloys  of  copper,  manganese,  and  aluminiums,  which 
have  proved  much  more  magnetic  than  nickel  and  cobalt, 
though  falling  far  short  of  iron. 

It  is  quite  possible  to  magnetize  a  piece  of  steel  by  the 
earth’s  influence,  if  the  metal  is  placed  in  a  definite  posi¬ 
tion  in  relation  to  the  magnetic  poles  of  the  earth  and 
then  hammered  in  order  to  give  the  molecules  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  getting  into  position.  Steel  railings  after  stand¬ 
ing  for  many  years  in  one  position  have  often  been  found 
to  be  quite  appreciable  magnets,  as  also  have  steel  rails 
of  a  railway  track. 

HOW  MAGNETISM  IS  RELATED  TO  ELECTRICITY. 

When  magnetism  and  electricity  were  at  first  known 
there  was  not  supposed  to  be  any  connection  between 
them ;  then  for  a  time  they  were  treated  as  sister  sciences, 


344  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

while  now  one  would  feel  it  more  natural  to  have  but  one 
scientific  name  to  distinctly  include  both. 

We  have  seen  that  an  electric  current  flowing  in  a  wire 
around  a  piece  of  iron  produced  magnetism  in  the  iron. 
If  the  iron  is  withdrawn  altogether,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  coil,  of  copper  wire  is  itself  a  magnet,  as  long  as  the 
current  flows  in  it. 

If  a  light  coil  of  fine  insulated  copper  wire  be  freely 
suspended,  and  attached  to  a  battery,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  coil,  with  the  current  passing  through  it,  behaves 
exactly  like  an  iron  magnet.  One  face  of  the  coil  will  be 
attracted  by  the  north  pole  of  a  bar-magnet,  while  the 
other  face  will  be  repelled,  showing  that  the  coil  has  a 
south  and  a  north  pole.  When  a  piece  of  iron  is  placed 
inside  the  coil  the  effect  is  greatly  increased. 

A  long  cylindrical  or  helical  coil  of  copper  wire,  deli¬ 
cately  balanced,  and  carrying  an  electric  current,  would 
act  as  a  compass  needle,  but  would,  of  course,  be  of  no 
practical  service  in  comparison  with  a  simple  magnetic 
needle. 

The  fact  that  an  electric  current  sets  up  a  disturbance 
in  the  surrounding  ether,  which  is  termed  4 1  a  magnetic 
field,  ’  ’  should  now  be  clear,  but  the  relationship  does  not 
cease  here,  for  the  converse  is  also  true.1 

Some  seventy  years  ago  the  great  British  scientist, 
Michael  Faradav,  discovered  that  when  a  coil  of  wire 
was  quickly  moved  between  the  poles  of  a  magnet, 
an  electric  current  was  set  up  in  the  wire  at  each 
movement. 

We  have  all  seen  this  experiment  repeated  in  those 
small  magneto-electric  machines,  in  which  one  drives  a 
coil  of  wire  round  in  the  magnetic  field  of  a  permanent 
magnet.  Such  machines  are  sometimes  used  for  medical 
purposes,  but  perhaps  more  often  for  amusement. 

This  very  simple  little  experiment  of  Faraday ’s  in  time 
gave  birth  to  our  gigantic  dynamos  and  motors,  and  when 
we  think  of  all  that  these  mean  we  shall  surely  not  fail  to 


1  The  word  u  field  ”  here  merely  means  sphere  of  influence. 


ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM 


345 


put  a  true  measure  of  value  upon  the  patient  research 
work  of  scientific  men. 

The  coil  of  wire  carrying  an  electric  current  is  not  an 
electrified  body.  One  may  picture  an  electrified  body  as 
having  a  charge  of  electricity  at  rest  in  a  strained  condi¬ 
tion,  while  a  body  conveying  a  current  lias  electricity  in 
motion. 

In  the  molecular  theory  of  magnetism,  already  briefly 
explained,  it  is  obvious;  that  the  question  as  to  what 
magnetism  is  has  only  been  answered  in  part.  This 
theory  does  not  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  as  it  sets 
out  with  the  assumption  that  each  molecule  of  iron  is 
itself  a  magnet.  Where  does  the  molecule’s  magnetism 
come  from?  It  is  supposed  that  there  is  electricity  in 
rotation  in  the  ether  of  the  molecule,  and  that  it  is  this 
motion  which  furnishes  the  attractive  force.  As  this 
motion  is  in  the  ether,  which,  as  already  explained,  offers 
no  frictional  resistance  whatever,  the  motion  is  perpetual. 
We  are  so  accustomed  to  seeing  all  bodies  once  put  in 
motion  coming  to  rest  again,  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
think  of  a  perpetual  motion  of  this  nature.  We  must 
allow  however,  that  anything  we  have  seen  in  motion 
upon  this  earth  has  always  been  brought  to  rest  by 
obstruction  or  frictional  resistance.  Visible  exponents 
of  perpetual  motion  are  clearly  seen  in  the  heavens.  Our 
faithful  moon  makes  her  ceaseless  journey  around  the 
earth,  while  our  world  itself,  along  with  the  seven  other 
gigantic  planets,  performs  a  continuous  waltz  around 
the  sun.  Again  the  whole  vast  solar  system  is  bodily  on 
the  move,  traveling  probably  at  a  speed  of  one  thousand 
miles  per  minute,  and  these  motions  are  certainly  all  per¬ 
petual  as  far  as  man  is  concerned.  If  one  realizes  those 
gigantic  and  continuous  motions,  the  mind  need  not  be 
staggered  with  the  thought  of  perpetual  rotation  of  elec¬ 
tricity  in  the  molecule. 

There  is  one  point  I  would  like  to  remark  upon  in  this 
connection.  Surely  this  perpetual  motion  in  the  molecule 
must  be  incapable  of  interruption  as  far  as  we  are  con¬ 
cerned.  In  considering  the  fact  that  a  piece  of  iron  at 


346  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

a  white  heat  cannot  he  magnetized,  some  scientists  tell 
us  that  the  electrical  rotation  in  the  molecule  ceases,  but 
is  again  set  in  motion  as  the  body  comes  down  in  tem¬ 
perature.  Can  one  imagine  the  perpetual  motion  of  the 
planets  being  stopped  and  restarted?  It  seems  to  me  as 
unreasonable  to  suppose  the  perpetual  motion  in  the 
molecule  being  tampered  with.  May  we  not  rather 
imagine  the  molecules,  with  their  rotating  ether  intact, 
to  be  in  such  rapid  vibratory  motion,  at  such  a  high 
temperature,  that  they  have  for  the  time  become  uncon¬ 
trollable  by  the  outside  current  which  is  endeavoring  to 
turn  them  round? 


STORY  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE. 

BY 

Cyrus  West  Field. 

The  following  is  taken  from  a  speech  made  by  Cyrus  W.  Field  at  a 
banquet  given  him  in  New  York  in  1866  to  celebrate  the  final  comple¬ 
tion  and  successful  working  of  the  first  Atlantic  Cable. 

IT  is  nearly  thirteen  years  since  half  a  dozen  gentle- 
len  of  this  city  met  at  my  house  for  four  suc¬ 
cessive  evenings  and  around  a  table  covered  with 
maps  and  charts  and  plans  and  estimates,  considered  a 
project  to  extend  a  line  of  telegraph  from  Nova  Scotia  to 
St.  John’s,  in  Newfoundland,  thence  to  be  carried  across 
the  ocean.  It  was  a  very  pretty  plan  on  paper.  There 
was  New  York  and  there  was  St.  John’s,  only  about 
twelve  hundred  miles  apart.  It  was  easy  to  draw  a  line 
from  one  point  to  the  other  —  making  no  account  of  the 
forests  and  mountains  and  swamps  and  rivers  and  gulfs 
that  lay  in  our  way.  Not  one  of  us  had  ever  seen  the 
country  or  had  any  idea  of  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome. 
We  thought  we  could  build  the  line  in  a  few  months.  It 
took  two  years  and  a  half.  Yet  we  never  asked  for  help 
outside  our  own  little  circle.  Indeed,  I  fear  we  should 


STORY  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE 


347 


not  have  got  it  if  we  had,  for  few  had  any  faith  in  our 
scheme.  Every  dollar  came  out  of  our  own  pockets.  Yet 
I  am  proud  to  say  no  man  drew  back.  No  man  proved  a 
deserter;  those  who  came  first  into  the  work  have  stood 
by  it  to  the  end. 

“  From  this  statement  you  will  perceive  that  in  the  be¬ 
ginning  this  was  wholly  an  American  enterprise.  It  was 
begun  and  for  two  years  and  a  half  was  carried  on  solely 
by  American  capital.  Our  brethren  across  the  sea  did  not 
even  know  what  we  were  doing  away  in  the  forests  of 
Newfoundland.  Our  little  company  raised  and  expended 
over  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars  before  the  English¬ 
men  paid  a  single  pound  sterling.  Our  only  support  out¬ 
side  was  in  the  liberal  charter  and  steady  friendship  of 
the  Government  of  Newfoundland  for  which  we  were 
greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  E.  M.  Archibald,  then  attorney- 
general  of  that  colony,  and  now’  British  consul  in  New 
York.  And  in  preparing  for  an  ocean  cable,  the  first 
soundings  across  the  Atlantic  were  made  by  American 
officers  in  American  ships.  Our  scientific  men  —  Morse, 
Henry,  Bache,  and  Maury  —  had  taken  great  interest  in 
the  subject.  The  United  States  ship  4  Dolphin  ’  dis¬ 
covered  the  telegraph  plateau  as  early  as  1853;  and  the 
United  States  ship  4  Arctic  ’  sounded  across  from  New¬ 
foundland  to  Ireland  in  1856,  a  year  before  Her  Majesty’s 
ship  4  Cyclops,  ’  under  command  of  Captain  Dayman,  went 
over  the  same  course.  This  I  state  not  to  take  aught  from 
the  just  praise  of  England  but  simply  to  vindicate  the 
truth  of  history. 

4  4  It  was  not  till  1856  —  ten  years  ago  —  that  the  enter¬ 
prise  had  any  existence  in  England.  In  that  summer  I 
went  to  London  and  there  organized  the  Atlantic  Tele¬ 
graph  Company.  Science  had  begun  to  contemplate  the 
possibility  of  such  an  enterprise;  and  the  great  Faraday 
cheered  us  with  his  lofty  enthusiasm.  Then,  for  the  first 
time,  was  enlisted  the  support  of  English  capitalists ;  and 
then  the  British  Government  began  that  generous  course 
which  it  has  continued  ever  since  —  offering  us  ships  to 
complete  soundings  across  the  Atlantic  and  to  assist  in 


348  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

laying  the  cable,  and  an  annual  subsidy  for  the  trans¬ 
mission  of  messages.  The  expedition  of  1857,  and  the 
two  expeditions  of  1858  were  a  joint  enterprise  in  which 
the  ‘  Niagara  ’  and  the  ‘  Susquehanna  ’  took  part  with  the 
‘  Agamemnon,  ’  the  ‘Leopard,’  the  ‘Gorgon’  and  the 
‘  Valorous ;  ’  and  the  officers  of  both  navies  worked  with 
generous  rivalry  for  the  same  great  object.  The  capital 
—  except  one-quarter  which  was  taken  by  myself  —  was 
subscribed  wholly  in  Great  Britain.  The  directors  were 
almost  all  English  bankers  and  merchants.  Though 
among  them  was  one  gentleman  whom  we  are  proud  to 
call  an  American,  Mr.  George  Peabody,  a  name  honored 
in  two  countries,  since  he  showered  his  princely  benefac¬ 
tions  upon  both  —  who,  though  a  resident  for  nearly  forty 
years  in  London,  where  he  has  gained  abundant  wealth 
and  honors,  still  clings  to  the  land  of  his  birth ;  declining 
the  honor  of  a  baronetcy  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  re¬ 
main  a  simple  American  citizen. 

“  With  the  history  of  the  expeditions  of  1857-58  you 
are  familiar.  On  the  third  trial  we  gained  a  brief  suc¬ 
cess.  The  cable  was  laid,  and  for  four  weeks  it  worked, 
though  never  very  brilliantly,  never  giving  forth  such 
rapid  and  distinct  flashes  as  the  cables  of  to-day.  It 
spoke,  though  only  in  broken  sentences.  But  while  it 
lasted  no  less  than  four  hundred  messages  were  sent 
across  the  Atlantic.  You  all  remember  the  enthusiasm 
which  it  excited.  It  was  a  new  thing  under  the  sun,  and 
for  a  few  weeks  the  public  went  wild  over  it.  Of  course, 
when  it  stopped  the  reaction  was  very  great.  People 
grew  dumb  and  suspicious.  Some  thought  it  was  all  a 
hoax,  and  many  were  quite  sure  that  it  never  worked  at 
all.  That  kind  of  odium  we  have  had  to  endure  for  eight 
years  until  now  I  trust  we  have  at  last  silenced  the 
unbelievers. 

“  After  the  failure  of  1858  came  our  darkest  days. 
When  a  thing  is  dead  it  is  hard  to  galvanize  it  into  life. 
It  is  more  difficult  to  revive,  an  old  enterprise  than  to 
start  a  new  one.  The  freshness  and  novelty  are  gone  and 
the  feeling  of  disappointment  discourages  further  effort. 


STORY  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE 


349 


Other  causes  delayed  the  new  attempt.  This  country  had 
become  involved  in  a  tremendous  war;  and  while  the 
nation  was  struggling  for  life  it  had  no  time  to  spend  in 
foreign  enterprise. 

44  But  in  England  the  project  was  still  kept  alive.  The 
Atlantic  Telegraph  Company  kept  up  its  organization.  It 
had  a  noble  bodv  of  directors  who  had  faith  in  the  enter- 
prise  and  looked  beyond  its  present  low  estate  to  ultimate 
success. 

44  All  this  time  the  science  of  submarine  telegraphy  was 
making  progress.  The  British  Government  appointed  a 
commission  to  investigate  the  whole  subject.  This  com¬ 
mission  sat  for  nearly  two  years  and  spent  many  thou¬ 
sands  of  pounds  in  experiments.  The  result  was  a  clear 
conviction  in  every  mind  that  it  was  possible  to  lay  a  tele¬ 
graph  across  the  Atlantic.  Science  was  also  being  all 
the  while  applied  to  practice.  Submarine  cables  were  laid 
in  different  seas  —  in  the  Mediterranean,  in  the  Bed  sea, 
and  the  Persian  gulf.  The  latter  was  laid  by  my  friend, 
Sir  Charles  Bright,  who  thus  rendered  another  service  to 
his  country  and  gained  a  fresh  title  to  the  honor  which 
was  conferred  upon  him  for  his  part  in  laying  the  first 
Atlantic  cable. 

4  4  When  the  scientific  and  engineering  problems  were 
solved  we  took  heart  again  and  began  to  prepare  for  a 
fresh  attempt.  This  was  in  1863.  In  this  country  — 
though  the  war  was  still  raging  —  I  went  from  city  to  city 
holding  meetings  and  trying  to  raise  capital,  but  with 
poor  success.  Men  came  and  listened  and  said,  4  it  was 
all  very  fine,  ’  and  4  hoped  I  would  succeed,  ’  but  did  noth¬ 
ing.  In  one  of  the  cities  they  gave  me  a  large  meeting  ancl 
passed  some  beautiful  resolutions  and  appointed  a  com¬ 
mittee  of  4  solid  men  ’  to  canvass  the  city,  but  I  did  not 
get  a  solitary  subscriber !  In  this  city  I  did  better,  though 
money  came  by  the  hardest  work.  By  personal  solicita¬ 
tions  I  succeeded  in  raising  $350,000.  But  at  the  time  I 
speak  of,  it  was  plain  that  our  main  hope  must  be  in  Eng¬ 
land,  and  I  went  to  London.  There  too,  it  dragged 
heavily;  there  was  a  profound  discouragement.  Many 


350 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


liad  lost  before  and  were  not  willing  to  throw  more  money 
into  the  sea.  We  needed  $3,000,000,  and  with  our  utmost 
efforts  we  had  raised  less  than  half,  and  there  the  enter¬ 
prise  stood  in  a  deadlock.  It  was  plain  that  we  must  have 
help  from  some  new  quarter.  I  looked  around  to  find  a 
man  who  had  broad  shoulders  and  could  carry  a  heavy 
load,  and  who  would  be  a  giant  in  the  cause.  It  was  at 
this  time  I  was  introduced  to  a  gentleman  whom  I  would 
hold  up  to  the  American  public  as  a  specimen  of  a  great¬ 
hearted  Englishman,  Mr.  Thomas  Brassey,  in  London, 
known  as  one  of  the  men  who  have  made  British  enter¬ 
prise  and  Britain  capital  felt  in  all  parts  of  the  earth.  I 
went  to  see  him,  though  with  fear  and  trembling.  He 
received  me  kindly,  but  put  me  through  such  an  examina¬ 
tion  as  I  never  had  before.  I  thought  I  was  in  the  wit¬ 
ness-box.  He  asked  every  possible  question,  but  my 
answers  satisfied  him,  and  he  ended  by  saying  that  ‘  it 
was  an  enterprise  which  ought  to  be  carried  out  and  that 
he  would  be  one  of  ten  men  to  furnish  the  money  to  do 
it.’  This  was  a  pledge  of  $300,000!  Encouraged  by 
this  noble  offer  I  looked  about  to  find  another  such  man, 
though  it  was  almost  like  trying  to  find  two  Wellingtons. 
But  he  was  found  in  Mr.  John  Pender,  of  Manchester.  I 
went  one  day  to  his  office  in  London  and  we  walked  to¬ 
gether  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and  before  we  got 
through  he  said  he  would  take  an  equal  share  with  Mr. 
Brassey. 

“  The  action  of  these  two  gentlemen  was  a  turning- 
point  in  the  history  of  our  enterprise,  for  it  led  shortly 
after  to  a  union  of  the  well-known  firm  of  Glass,  Elliott 
&  Company  with  the  Gutta-Percha  Company,  making  of 
the  two  one  grand  concern,  which  included  not  only  Mr. 
Brassey  and  Mr.  Pender,  but  other  men  of  great  wealth, 
such  as  Mr.  George  Elliott,  and  Mr.  Barclay,  of  London, 
and  Mr.  Henry  Bewley,  of  Dublin,  and  which  thus  rein¬ 
forced  with  immense  capital  took  up  the  whole  enterprise 
in  its  strong  arms.  We  needed,  I  have  said,  $3,000,000, 
and  with  all  our  efforts  in  England  and  America  we  had 
raised  only  $1,425,000,  This  new  company  now  came 


STORY  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE 


351 


forward  and  offered  to  take  up  the  whole  remaining 
$1,575,000  besides  $500,000  of  the  bonds  and  to  make  its 
own  profits  contingent  on  success !  Mr.  Richard  A. 
Glass  was  made  Managing  Director,  and  gave  energy 
and  vigor  to  all  its  departments,  being  admirably 
seconded  by  the  Secretary,  Mr.  Shuter.  Mr.  Glass  has 
been  knighted  for  his  services  in  carrying  out  the  Atlan¬ 
tic  Telegraph  —  an  honor  which  he  most  justly  deserves. 

“  A  few  days  after,  half  a  dozen  gentlemen  joined  to¬ 
gether  and  bought  the  ‘  Great  Eastern  *  to  lay  the  cable. 
At  the  head  of  this  company  was  placed  Mr.  Daniel  Gooch, 
member  of  Parliament  and  chairman  of  the  Great  West¬ 
ern  Railway,  who  was  with  us  in  both  expeditions  which 
followed,  and  who  for  his  services  has  been  made  a 
baronet  of  the  United  Kingdom. 

“  The  good  fortune  which  favored  us  in  our  ship 
favored  us  also  in  our  commander.  Many  of  you  know 
Captain  Anderson  who  was  for  years  in  the  Cunard  line. 
You  may  have  crossed  the  sea  with  him,  and  you  re¬ 
member  how  kind  lie  was ;  how  clear-eyed  and  prompt  in 
his  duty,  and  yet  always  a  quiet  and  modest  gentleman. 
How  well  he  did  his  part  in  two  expeditions  the  result  has 
proved,  and  it  was  just  that  a  mark  of  royal  favor  should 
fall  on  that  manly  head. 

‘  ‘  Thus  organized,  the  work  of  making  the  new  Atlantic 
cable  was  begun.  The  core  was  prepared  with  infinite 
care  under  the  able  superintendence  of  Mr.  Chatterton 
and  Mr.  Willoughby  Smith ;  and  the  whole  was  completed 
in  about  eight  months.  As  fast  as  ready  it  was  taken  on 
board  the  4  Great  Eastern  ’  and  coiled  in  three  enormous 
tanks;  and,  on  July  15,  1865,  the  ship  started  on  her 
memorable  voyage. 

4  4  For  a  week  all  went  well ;  we  had  paid  out  twelve 
hundred  miles  of  cable  and  had  only  six  hundred  miles 
further  to  go  when,  hauling  in  the  cable  to  remedy  a 
fault,  it  parted  and  went  to  the  bottom !  That  day  I  can 
never  forget  —  how  men  paced  the  deck  in  despair  looking 
out  on  the  broad  sea  that  had  swallowed  up  their  hopes; 
and  then  how  the  brave  Canning  for  nine  days  and  nights 


352  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

dragged  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  for  onr  lost  treasure,  and 
though  he  grappled  it  three  times,  failed  to  bring  it  to 
the  surface.  The  story  of  that  expedition  as  written  by 
Dr.  Russell,  who  was  on  board  the  ‘  Great  Eastern/  is 
one  of  the  most  marvelous  chapters  in  the  whole  history 
of  modern  enterprise.  We  returned  to  England  defeated 
yet  full  of  resolution  to  begin  the  battle  anew.  Measures 
were  at  once  taken  to  make  a  second  cable  and  to  fit  out 
a  new  expedition;  and  with  that  assurance  I  came  home 
last  autumn. 

“  In  December  I  went  back  again,  when  lo,  all  our  hopes 
had  sunk  to  nothing.  The  Attorney-General,  of  England, 
had  given  his  written  opinion  that  we  had  no  legal  right 
without  a  special  Act  of  Parliament  (which  could  not  be 
obtained  under  a  year)  to  issue  the  new  twelve  per  cent, 
shares  on  which  we  relied  to  raise  our  capital.  This  was 
a  terrible  blow.  The  works  were  at  once  stopped  and  the 
money  which  had  been  paid  in  returned  to  the  subscribers. 
Such  was  the  state  of  things  only  ten  months  ago.  I 
reached  London  on  December  24,  and  the  next  day  was 
not  a  ‘  Merry  Christmas  ’  to  me.  But  it  was  an 
inexpressible  comfort  to  have  the  counsel  of  such  men  as 
Sir  Daniel  Gooch  and  Sir  Robert  A.  Glass;  and  to  hear 
stout-hearted  Mr.  Brassey  tell  us  to  go  ahead;  and  if 
help  were  needed  he  would  put  down  $300,000  more !  It 
was  finally  concluded  that  the  best  course  was  to  or¬ 
ganize  a  new  company  which  should  assume  the  work; 
and  so  originated  the  Anglo-American  Telegraph  Com¬ 
pany.  It  was  formed  by  ten  gentlemen  who  met  round  a 
table  in  London  and  put  down  $50,000  apiece.  I  hope  the 
excellent  Secretary  of  this  company,  Mr.  Dean,  who 
came  with  us  across  the  ocean,  will  write  its  history  and 
tell  the  world  what  life  and  vigor  were  comprised  in  its 
board  of  directors.  The  great  telegraph  construction  and 
maintenance  company,  undaunted  by  the  failure  of  last 
year,  answered  us  with  a  subscription  of  $500,000 ;  soon 
after  the  books  were  opened  to  the  public  through  the  emi¬ 
nent  banking  house  of  J.  S.  Morgan  &  Company,  and  in 
fourteen  days  we  had  raised  the  whole  $3,000,000.  Then 


STORY  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE 


353 


the  work  began  again  and  went  on  with  speed.  Never  was 
greater  energy  infused  into  any  enterprise.  It  was  only 
the  first  day  of  March  that  the  new  company  was  formed 
and  it  was  registered  as  a  company  the  next  day;  yet 
such  was  the  vigor  and  despatch  that  in  five  months  from 
that  day  the  cable  had  been  manufactured,  shipped  on  the 
4  Great  Eastern/  stretched  across  the  Atlantic,  and  was 
sending  messages  literally  swift  as  lightning  from  con¬ 
tinent  to  continent. 

“  Yet  this  was  not  a  ‘  lucky  hit  ’  —  a  fine  run  across  the 
ocean  in  calm  weather;  it  was  the  worst  weather  I  ever 
knew  at  that  season  of  the  year.  We  had  fogs  and  storms 
almost  the  whole  way.  Our  success  was  the  result  of  the 
highest  science  combined  with  practical  experience. 
Everything  was  perfectly  organized  to  the  minutest  de¬ 
tail.  We  had  on  board  an  admirable  staff  of  officers,  such 
men  as  Halpin  and  Beckwith ;  and  engineers  long  used  to 
this  business,  such  as  Canning  and  Clifford,  and  Temple, 
the  first  of  whom  has  been  knighted  for  his  part  in  this 
great  achievement;  and  electricians  such  as  Professor 
Thomson,  of  Glasgow,  and  Willoughby,  Smith,  and  Laws; 
while  Mr.  C.  F.  Varley,  our  companion  of  the  year  before, 
who  stands  among  the  first  in  knowledge  and  practical 
skill,  remained  with  Sir  Robert  Glass,  at  Valentia,  to  keep 
watch  at  that  end  of  the  line,  and  Mr.  Latimer  Clark,  who 
was  to  test  the  cable  when  done.  Of  these  gentlemen, 
Professor  Thomson,  as  one  of  the  earliest  and  most 
eminent  electricians  of  England,  has  received  some  mark 
of  distinction.  England  honors  herself  when  she  thus 
pays  honor  to  science;  and  it  is  fitting  that  the  Govern¬ 
ment  which  honored  chemistry  in  Sir  Humphrey  Davy 
should  honor  electrical  science  in  Sir  William  Thomson. 

‘ 4  But  our  work  was  not  over.  After  landing  the  cable 
safely  at  Newfoundland  we  had  another  task,  to  return 
to  mid-ocean  and  recover  that  lost  in  the  expedition  of 
last  year.  This  achievement  had  perhaps  excited  more 
surprise  than  the  other.  Many  even  now  ‘  don’t  under¬ 
stand  it ;  ’  and  every  day  I  am  asked  ‘  how  it  was  done. 7 
Well,  it  does  seem  rather  difficult  —  to  fish  for  a  jewel  at 
Vol.  IY  —  21 


354 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


the  bottom  of  the  ocean  two  and  a  half  miles  deep,  but  it 
is  not  so  very  difficult  —  when  you  know  how.  You  may 
be  sure  we  did  not  go  fishing  at  random,  nor  was  our  suc¬ 
cess  mere  ‘  luck  ’ —  it  was  the  triumph  of  the  highest 
nautical  and  engineering  skill.  We  had  four  ships  and 
on  board  of  them  some  of  the  best  seamen  in  England, 
men  who  knew  the  ocean  as  a  hunter  knows  every  trail 
in  the  forest.  There  was  Captain  Moriarty,  who  was  in 
the  1  Agamemnon  ’  in  1857-58.  He  was  in  the  ‘  Great 
Eastern  ’  last  year  and  saw  the  cable  when  it  broke;  and 
he  and  Captain  Anderson  at  once  took  their  observations 
so  exact  that  they  could  go  right  to  the  spot.  After  find¬ 
ing  it,  they  marked  the  line  of  the  cable  by  a  row  of 
buoys;  for  fogs  would  come  down  and  shut  out  sun  and 
stars  so  that  no  man  could  take  an  observation.  These 
buoys  were  anchored  a  few  miles  apart.  They  were 
numbered,  and  each  one  had  a  flag-staff  on  it,  so  that  it 
could  be  seen  by  day,  and  a  lantern  by  night. 

“  Thus  having  taken  our  bearings  we  stood  off  three  or 
four  miles  so  as  to  come  broadside  on,  and  then  casting 
over  the  grapnel  we  drifted  slowly  down  upon  it,  drag¬ 
ging  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  as  we  went.  At  first  it  was 
a  little  awkward  to  fish  in  such  deep  water,  but  our  men 
got  used  to  it  and  soon  could  cast  a  grapnel  almost  as 
straight  as  an  old  whaler  throws  a  harpoon.  Our  fishing- 
line  was  of  formidable  size.  It  was  made  of  rope  twisted 
with  wires  of  steel  so  as  to  bear  a  strain  of  thirty  tons. 
It  took  about  two  hours  for  the  grapnel  to  reach  the  bot¬ 
tom,  and  we  could  tell  when  it  struck.  I  often  went  to 
the  bow  and  sat  on  the  rope  and  could  feel  by  the  quiver 
that  the  grapnel  was  dragging  on  the  bottom  two  miles 
under  us.  But  it  was  a  very  slow  business.  We  had 
storms  and  calms  and  fogs  and  squalls.  Still  we  worked 
on  day  after  day.  Once,  on  the  17th  of  August,  we  got  the 
cable  up,  and  had  it  in  full  sight  for  five  minutes,  a  long 
slimy  monster  fresh  from  the  ooze  of  the  ocean’s  bed;  but 
our  men  began  to  cheer  so  wildly  that  it  seemed  to  be 
frightened,  and  suddenly  broke  away  and  went  down  into 
the  sea.  This  accident  kept  us  at  work  two  weeks  longer  ; 


STOBY  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE 


355 


but  finally  on  the  last  night  of  August  we  caught  it.  We 
had  cast  the  grapnel  thirty  times.  It  was  a  little  before 
midnight  on  Friday  night  that  we  hooked  the  cable,  and 
it  was  a  little  after  midnight  Sunday  morning  when  we 
got  it  on  board. 

“  What  was  the  anxiety  of  those  twenty-six  hours !  The 

strain  on  every  man’s  life  was  like  the  strain  on  the  cable 

%/ 

itself.  When  finally  it  appeared  it  was  midnight;  the 
lights  of  the  ship  and  in  the  boats  around  our  bows  as 
they  flashed  in  the  faces  of  the  men  showed  them  eagerly 
watching  for  the  cable  to  appear  on  the  water.  At  length 
it  was  brought  to  the  surface.  All  who  were  allowed  to 
approach  crowded  forward  to  see  it;  yet  not  a  word  was 
spoken;  only  the  voices  of  the  officers  in  command  were 
heard  giving  orders.  All  felt  as  if  life  and  death  hung  on 
the  issue.  It  was  only  when  it  was  brought  over  the  bow 
and  on  to  the  deck  that  men  dared  to  breathe.  Even  then 
they  hardly  believed  their  eyes.  Some  crept  toward  it,  to 
feel  of  it  to  be  sure  it  was  there.  Then  we  carried  it 
along  to  the  electricians’  room  to  see  if  our  long-sought 
treasure  was  living  or  dead.  A  few  minutes  of  suspense 
and  a  flash  told  of  the  lightning  current  again  set  free. 
Then  did  the  feeling  long  pent  up  burst  forth.  Some 
turned  away  their  heads  and  wept.  Others  broke  into 
cheers,  and  the  cry  ran  from  man  to  man  and  was  heard 
down  in  the  engine-rooms  deck  below  deck,  and  from  the 
boats  on  the  water,  and  the  other  ships,  while  rockets 
lighted  up  the  darkness  of  the  sea.  Then  with  thankful 
hearts  we  turned  our  faces  again  to  the  west.  But  soon 
the  wind  rose  and  for  thirty-six  hours  we  were  exposed  to 
all  the  dangers  of  a  storm  on  the  Atlantic.  Yet  in  the 
very  height  and  fury  of  the  gale  as  I  sat  in  the  elec¬ 
tricians  ’  room  a  flash  of  light  came  up  from  the  deep 
which,  having  crossed  to  Ireland,  came  back  to  me  in  mid- 
ocean  telling  that  those  so  dear  to  me  whom  I  had  left 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  were  well  and  following  us 
with  their  wishes  and  their  prayers.  This  was  like  a 
whisper  of  God  from  the  sea  bidding  me  keep  heart  and 
hope.  The  ‘  Great  Eastern  ’  bore  herself  proudly  through 


356 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


the  storm  as  if  she  knew  that  the  vital  cord  which  was  to 
join  two  hemispheres  hung  at  her  stern;  and  so  on  Satur¬ 
day,  September  7th,  we  brought  our  second  cable  safely  to 
the  shore. 

‘  ‘  Such,  gentlemen,  in  brief  is  the  story  of  the  telegraph 
which  you  have  wished  to  hear.  It  has  been  a  long,  hard 
struggle  —  nearly  thirteen  years  of  anxious  watching  and 
ceaseless  toil.  Often  my  heart  has  been  ready  to  sink. 
Many  times  when  wandering  in  the  forests  of  Newfound¬ 
land  in  the  pelting  rain,  or  on  the  decks  of  ships  on 
dark  stormy  nights  —  alone,  far  from  home  —  I  have  al¬ 
most  accused  myself  of  madness  and  folly  to  sacrifice  the 
peace  of  my  family  and  all  the  hopes  of  my  life  for  what 
might  prove  after  all  but  a  dream.  I  have  seen  my  com¬ 
panions  one  and  another  falling  by  my  side  and  feared 
that  I  too  might  not  live  to  see  the  end.  And  yet  one  hope 
has  led  me  on,  and  I  have  prayed  that  I  might  not  taste 
of  death  till  this  work  was  accomplished.  That  prayer  is 
answered ;  and,  now,  beyond  all  acknowledgments  to  men 
is  the  feeling  of  gratitude  to  Almighty  God.” 


THE  RONTGEN  RAYS,  AND  THE  WONDERS  THEY 

PERFORM. 

BY 

E.  M.  Holmes. 

EARLY  in  the  year  1896  the  civilized  world  was 
startled  by  a  discovery  which  sounded  like  a  tale 
of  fairyland.  Certain  rays  were  found  which 
would  pass  through  parts  of  the  human  body,  and  cast  a 
shadow-picture  of  the  hones  and  joints  on  a  photographic 
plate. 

The  statement  seems  incredible;  hut  further  thought 
suggests  that  if  ordinary  light  will  pass  through  a  solid 

’  From  “  Surgeons  and  their  Wonderful  Discoveries.” 


THE  RONTGEN  RAYS 


357 


p'ate  of  glass,  wliy  should  not  rays  exist  which  would 
pass  through  other  substances? 

That  is  ridiculous,  you  reply,  because  glass  is  trans¬ 
parent;  but  why,  it  may  be  answered,  should  not  other 
materials  be  transparent,  or  partly  so,  to  other  forms  of 
light  ? 

In  any  case  certain  rays  were  discovered,  which, 
whether  a  form  of  light  or  not,  had  the  power  of  passing 
through  the  human  body  and  also  through  some  other 
materials,  and  of  photographing  substances  within  them 
on  a  sensitive  plate. 

The  rays  soon  became  fairly  well  known  by  the  name  of 
their  discoverer,  Professor  Rontgen  of  Wurzburg  Uni¬ 
versity,  Bavaria,  though  he  called  them  at  first  the 
X-rays  —  from  our  old  friend,  X,  the  algebraical  sign  for 
an  unknown  quantity  —  and  they  have  been  found  of  im¬ 
mense  service  in  surgery. 

Now,  though  the  name  of  one  man  is  connected,  and 
rightly  connected,  with  this  discovery,  yet,  like  many 
other  discoveries,  several  men  have  contributed  to  it. 
Thus,  the  celebrated  English  chemist,  Professor  Sir 
William  Crookes,  showed,  twenty  years  previously,  that 
if  an  electric  current  be  passed  from  an  induction  coil 
through  a  tube  or  bulb  of  glass,  from  which  the  air  has 
been  exhausted  by  an  air  pump,  certain  ‘  rays  ’  were 
emitted  from  the  negative,  or  cathode,  electrode  of  the 
tube  connected  with  the  negative  pole  of  the  coil.  Fur¬ 
ther,  should  these  rays  fall  on  certain  substances,  or  even 
on  the  glass  of  the  tube,  light  was  excited  capable  of  act¬ 
ing  on  a  photographic  plate. 

Many  years  previously,  Beccaria  noticed  that,  should 
a  vacuum  tube  be  broken  in  the  dark,  a  faint  phosphor¬ 
escent  light  was  produced.  There  have  been  other 
workers  in  the  same  field,  such  as  Hittorf  and  Abney. 
Heinrich  Hiez,  a  celebrated  German  electrician,  dis¬ 
covered  that  the  rays  passed  through  aluminium  foil,  and 
Lenard,  his  pupil,  a  Hungarian,  put  a  small  piece  of 
aluminium  in  the  Crookes’  tube  and  took  photographs 
with  the  rays  in  the  dark.  His  results,  however,  were 


358  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

buried  in  a  long  treatise  and  did  not  attract  much 
attention. 

Now  Rontgen  went  beyond  these  discoveries  and 
showed  that  these  —  or  similar  —  mysterious  rays  would 
pass  through  the  human  hand,  or  part  of  the  body,  and 
would  cast  a  shadow  picture  on  a  photographic  plate 
His  experiments  leading  to  this  discovery  were  made 
toward  the  end  of  1895,  but  were  not  published  abroad 
until  January,  1896.  The  discovery,  no  doubt,  became  so 
suddenly  popular,  because  everybody  could  grasp  the 
startling  idea  that  their  bones  could  be  photographed, 
though  they  might  not  comprehend  how  it  was  done. 

How,  then,  are  these  mysterious  rays  produced? 

The  essence  of  the  method  may  be  thus  described. 
Take  a  Crookes’  tube,  that  is,  a  suitable  glass  tube  or 
bulb,  having  a  wire  from  an  electric  apparatus  fitted  at 
either  end,  and  the  air  in  the  tube  being  exhausted,  or 
drawn  out  by  an  air  pump,  the  electric  circuit  is,  of 
course,  broken  bv  the  vacuum  in  the  tube  between  the 
ends  of  the.  wires.  Now,  should  an  electric  current  be 
sent  along  the  wires,  and  a  living  hand  be  placed  between 
the  tnbe  and  a  photographic  plate,  a  shadow-picture  is 
obtained  revealing  clearly  the  joints  and  the  outlines  of 
the  bones.  In  this  way  Rontgen  obtained  shadow  photo¬ 
graphs  of  several  concealed  objects,  such  as  weights  in  a 
box,  and  a  needle  and  a  compass  card  in  a  metal  case. 
From  his  experiments  he  supposed  that  some  invisible 
rays  were  generated  by  the  electric  disturbance,  and 
that  these  rays  were  able  to  pass  through  various  bodies 
placed  in  their  path,  some  bodies,  less  permeable  to  the 
rays  than  others,  casting  a  shadow.  He  could  not  deter¬ 
mine  the  nature  of  the  rays,  and  therefore  used  the  alge¬ 
braical  sign  and  called  them  the  N-rays.  The  public, 
however,  soon  affixed  the  discoverer’s  name  instead  of  X, 
and,  as  it  were,  by  common  consent  they  were  speedily 
and  popularly  called  the  Rontgen  Rays. 

Professor  Rontgen  was  born  at  Lennep,  Husseldorf,  in 
Prussia,  in  1844,  and  was  educated  at  Zurich,  and  was 
professor  at  Wurzburg  University,  Bavaria,  when  he 
made  his  now  world-famous  discovery. 


THE  RONTGEN  RAYS 


359 


The  mysterious  rays  were  soon  put  to  practical  use. 
Professor  Mosetig,  of  Vienna,  tested  them  on  two  pa¬ 
tients  on  January  21, 1896,  with  complete  success.  A  man 
had  received  a  revolver  shot  in  the  left  hand,  and  the 
Rontgen-ray  picture  showed  the  injuries  caused  and  the 
position  of  the  shot  with  great  clearness  and  precision. 
The  second  instance  showed  the  position  and  nature  of 
a  malformation  of  a  girl’s  left  foot,  and  these  early  ex¬ 
periments  indicated  almost  conclusively  that  the  surgeon 
might  find  by  the  rays  the  exact  spot  where  he  might 
operate  with  comparative  ease. 

England,  also,  was  not  far  behind.  The  Lancet  for  the 
third  week  in  January,  1896,  issued  two  reproductions 
from  Rontgen-ray  photographs,  showing  a  human  hand 
and  also  a  frog.  The  journal  described  them  as  taken 
‘‘by  means  of  the  radiation  from  a  Crookes’  phosphor¬ 
escent  tube,  actuated  by  a  so-called  high  frequency  cur¬ 
rent  (a  current  of  high  pressure  and  periodicity).” 
Powerful  apparatus  in  Mr.  A.  C.  Swinton’s  laboratory 
in  London,  England,  was  used,  and  both  objects  to  be 
photographed  were  placed  on  a  sheet  of  aluminium,  rest¬ 
ing  on  a  sensitive  plate  in  its  ordinary  dark  slide.  Alu¬ 
minium  allows  these  rays  to  pass  through,  but  is  im¬ 
pervious  to  ordinary  light.  The  hand  was  exposed  for 
four  minutes  and  a  half,  and  the  frog  nearly  twenty 
minutes,  and  the  negative  was  developed  in  the  usual 
manner  by  Mr.  G.  Stanton. 

The  photographs  showed  clearly  to  every  surgeon  the 
importance  of  the  discovery.  The  bones  and  the  finger 
joints  of  the  hand  could  be  seen  quite  distinctly,  while 
the  bony  part  of  Master  Froggy  appeared  quite  dark  as 
compared  with  the  lighter  tone  of  the  surrounding  part. 

Again,  on  the  evening  of  January  28th,  the  same  re¬ 
sults  of  the  process  were  shown  at  the  rooms  of  the  Royal 
Photographic  Society,  and  on  that  occasion  Mr.  J.  W. 
Gifford  exhibited  what  is  regarded  as  the  first  Rontgen- 
ray  medical  or  surgical  photograph  taken  in  Britain  — 
namely,  the  picture  of  a  human  foot  clearly  showing  a 
malformation  of  the  metatarsus,  that  is,  of  the  middle 
bones  of  the  foot. 


360  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

About  a  couple  of  months  later,  the  Lancet  again  pub¬ 
lished  a  couple  of  prints  indicating  the  possibilities  and 
value  of  the  new  photography.  The  prints  not  only 
showed  clearly  the  spinal  column,  ribs  and  right  elbow- 
joint  of  a  small  dead  monkey,  but  also  a  uric  acid  renal 
calculus  which  had  been  inserted  into  the  right-hand  kid¬ 
ney.  A  gall-stone  had  been  placed  in  the  left-hand 
kidney,  but  this  was  not  so  clear. 

News  of  the  astounding  discovery  was  not  long  in 
penetrating  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  from  various 
quarters  came  reports  of  repetitions  of  the  experiments. 
Yet  actual  applications  to  surgery  were  for  a  time  few 
in  number. 

Perhaps  the  first  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  was  made 
at  M’Gill  University,  Montreal.  Before  any  detailed 
descriptions  had  reached  him,  Professor  Cox  was  able  at 
a  first  attempt  to  gain  an  excellent  photograph  of  the 
human  hand,  and  a  day  or  two  later  —  that  would  be 
early  in  1896  —  the  rays  were  used  to  determine  the  posi¬ 
tion  of  a  bullet  in  a  patient’s  leg. 

A  bullet  had  been  lodged  about  the  middle  of  the  calf 
since  the  night  of  the  previous  25th  of  December.  Forty 
minutes’  exposure  was  given,  and  a  photograph  was  pro¬ 
duced  showing  clearly  the  bones  within  the  gauzy  shadow 
of  the  flesh,  and  between  the  two  bones  —  that  is,  between 
the  tibia  and  the  fibula  —  the  flattened  bullet  could  be 
seen  against  the  inner  angle  of  the  tibia.  Acting  on  this 
information,  the  surgeon  extracted  the  bullet  the  next 
day  with  an  incision  two  inches  deep. 

Mr.  A.  A.  Campbell  Swinton  was  one  of  the  first  in 
England  to  experiment  with  the  rays;  and  in  a  lecture 
before  the  Royal  Photographic  Society,  on  February  11, 
1896,  he  gave  a  brief  account  of  the  state  of  knowledge 
then  existing  regarding  them.  Ordinary  vacuum  or 
Geissler  tubes  were  of  little  use,  the  phenomena  not  oc¬ 
curring  except  in  the  much  higher  vacua  of  Crookes’ 
tubes.  The  difference,  he  explained,  was  that  in  the 
former  tubes  luminescence  was  due  to  gases  left  in  the 
tubes,  but  in  the  Crookes  ’  tubes  it  was  due  to  the  cathode 


361 


THE  RONTGEN  RAYS 

rays  from  the  negative  electrode,  and  on  striking  the  end 
of  the  tube,  or  a  plate  of  metal  inserted  in  it,  the  phe¬ 
nomenon  was  caused.  It  was  important  to  use  tubes  of 
the  right  description. 

The  rays  proceeded  from  the  bright  spot  on  the  glass 
where  it  was  struck  by  the  cathode  rays,  and  if  the  spot 
were  large  the  photographic  plate  might  be  held  farther 
from  the  tube  than  if  the  bright  patch  were  small.  As  to 
length  of  the  exposure,  he  had  obtained  a  fairly  good 
picture  of  part  of  the  body  in  fifty-five  seconds. 

The  first  photograph  taken  for  actual  use  in  practical 
operative  surgery  seems  to  have  been  at  Liverpool 
toward  the  end  of  February,  1896.  It  was  taken  by  Pro¬ 
fessor  Lodge,  of  University  College,  Liverpool,  and 
showed  a  bullet  in  a  boy’s  wrist. 

Mr.  Robert  Jones,  honorary  surgeon  to  the  Royal 
Southern  Hospital,  Liverpool,  reports  the  case  in  the 
Lancet,  February  22,  1896.  “  A  boy,  aged  about  twelve 
years,”  he  says,  “  was  brought  to  me  by  Dr.  Simpson,  of 
Waterloo,  Liverpool,  having  shot  himself  in  the  left  hand 
just  above  the  deep  palmar  arch.  The  wound  was 
enlarged  but  the  bullet  could  not  be  found,  and  it  was 
thought  injudicious  to  prolong  the  search,  in  view  of  the 
important  structures  in  the  vicinity,  unless  one  possessed 
a  clue  to  its  position.  Professor  Lodge  (of  University 
College,  Liverpool)  kindly  consented  to  take  a  photo¬ 
graph,  and  the  position  of  the  bullet,  which  was  found  in 
the  wrist,  was  very  clearly  outlined.  .  .  .  This  is,  I 

think,  the  first  photograph  taken  of  a  bullet  embedded  in 
a  wrist,  in  this  case  considerably  thickened  as  the  result 
of  inflammation.” 

In  this  case  Professor  Oliver  Lodge  took  the  photo¬ 
graph  after  two  hours’  exposure  to  a  well-exhausted 
vacuum  tube  —  home  made  —  excited  by  an  ordinary 
and  small  coil.  The  photographic  plate  was  an  Edwards’ 
iso-chromatic.  It  was  placed  nine  inches  apart  from  the 
vacuum  tube,  and  sheet  aluminium  was  used  to  screen  it 
from  light. 

The  rays  began  to  be  used  with  great  success  in  sur- 


362  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

gical  practice,  and  the  following  case  occurred  in  the 
practice  of  Mr.  Howard  Marsh,  and  was  referred  to  by 
Lord  Lister  in  liis  British  Association  address  at  Liver¬ 
pool  in  1896. 

Mr.  Marsh  was  called  to  treat  a  severe  injury  of  the 
elbow,  and  the  swelling  was  so  great  that  he  could  not 
tell  whether  the  trouble  was  due  to  a  dislocation  or  to 
a  fracture.  If  the  former,  a  cure  would  have  to  be 
effected  by  violence,  which  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be 
most  injurious  if  a  bone  were  broken. 

What  was  to  be  done? 

The  Rontgen  Rays  were  used,  and  by  their  help  a  pho¬ 
tograph  was  taken,  the  picture  showing  the  injury  to  be 
a  dislocation ;  the  bone  of  the  upper  arm  was  seen  to  be 
displaced  forward  on  the  bones  of  the  forearm.  Mr. 
Marsh  therefore  proceeded  to  reduce  the  dislocation,  that 
is,  to  place  the  bones  in  their  right  position,  and  another 
photograph,  taken  afterward,  showed  them  to  be  cor¬ 
rectly  replaced. 

In  this  case,  it  is  evident,  the  use  of  the  rays  was  of 
very  great  assistance. 

The  difference  in  the  power  of  penetrating  different 
substances  shown  by  the  Rontgen  Rays  is  very  peculiar. 
Thus  black  paper  is  pervious  to  them;  but  lead  glass  is 
less  transparent  than  soda  glass.  They  strike  through 
wood,  but  find  bone  opaque.  Black  paper,  it  may  be  re¬ 
marked,  would  shield  a  photographic  plate  against  the 
light  from  an  arc  lamp. 

Mysterious  as  they  are,  the  rays  can  be  popularly 
understood  in  this  respect,  that  they  possess  the  power 
of  passing  through  some  substances  which  are  opaque 
to  ordinary  rays  of  light.  But  their  behavior  is  very 
strange  and  perplexing,  for  they  may  pass  through  a 
case  of  wood  or  leather,  in  which  they  may  be  enclosed, 
while  a  pair  of  spectacles  may  stop  them. 

It  is  more  comprehensible  to  find,  as  we  have  seen, 
that,  generally  speaking,  the  denser  the  object,  the 
greater  is  the  obstacle  opposed  to  them.  Thus  the  bones 
of  the  human  body  being  denser  than  flesh,  they  cast  a 


THE  RONTGEN  RATS 


363 


denser  shadow;  while  metals  like  iron,  lead,  and  copper, 
being  denser  than  bones,  also  cast  heavy  shadows,  and 
thus  the  ravs  reveal  a  bullet  embedded  even  in  a  bone, 
or  a  needle  in  a  joint. 

Advantage  is  therefore  taken  of  the  fact  that  the 
rays  produce  apparently  the  same  effects  as  ordinary 
light  upon  a  photographic  plate.  If,  therefore,  the  hand 
or  arm  be  placed  above  the  photographic  film,  which  is 
suitably  encased  and  at  the  requisite  distance  from  the 
source  of  the  rays,  they  are  almost  stopped  by  the  bones, 
but  much  less  so  by  the  flesh,  and  a  picture  is  gained 
in  which  the  bones  appear  in  sharp  relief  in  the  flesh 
and  anything  unusual  is  clearly  exhibited.  A  picture  is 
thus  obtained  of  the  interior  of  the  body,  and  the  aid 
given  to  the  surgeon  is  obvious. 

The  rays  have  also  the  property  of  causing  certain  sub¬ 
stances  to  fluoresce — that  is,  to  become  self-luminous 
when  exposed  to  the  direct  action  of  rays  of  light  —  and 
if  the  Rontgen  rays  are  directed  to  a  translucent  screen 
impregnated  with  a  salt  that  will  so  fluoresce,  it  becomes 
beautifully  illuminated.  If  the  part  of  the  human  body 
to  be  examined  be  placed  between  the  screen  and  the  rays, 
the  bones  and  other  parts  will  throw  shadows  upon  the 
screen.  Thus  it  was  that  Dr.  Macintyre,  of  Glasgow, 
detected  a  coin  in  a  boy’s  gullet  without  the  delay  of  tak¬ 
ing  a  photograph.  Mr.  Herbert  Jackson,  of  King’s  Col¬ 
lege,  early  became  distinguished  for  this  branch  of  the 
Rontgen-ray  practice.  Thus  the  rays  are  used  in  two 
ways,  viz.,  by  taking  a  photograph,  and  by  throwing  a 
shadow  on  a  screen. 

A  picture  was  also  taken  by  Dr.  Macintyre  of  the  half¬ 
penny  in  the  boy’s  gullet,  and  it  was  shown  at  a  conver¬ 
sazione  of  the  Royal  Society  in  1896.  The  picture  ex¬ 
hibited  with  perfect  distinctness  the  coin,  low  down  in 
the  boy’s  gullet,  the  rays  having  penetrated  the  bony 
framework  of  the  chest  to  obtain  the  picture.  The  half¬ 
penny  had  been  there  for  six  months,  causing,  curiously 
enough,  uneasiness  at  the  pit  of  the  stomach  during 
swallowing.  But  the  position  of  the  coin  remained  abso- 


364  EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 

lutely  uncertain  until  these  wonderful  rays  piercing  the 
bones,  threw  light  on  the  subject  in  more  senses  than  one. 

Having  thus  determined  the  position  of  the  coin,  the 
surgeon  in  charge  of  the  case  attempted  to  extract  the 
piece  of  metal.  He  was  not  immediately  successful,  but 
he  dislodged  it.  A  subsequent  photograph  showed  that 
it  had  disappeared  from  the  gullet,  but  so  great  was  the 
penetrating  power  of  the  rays,  that  they  showed  also  it 
had  not  lodged  lower  down  in  the  alimentary  canal.  It  is 
pleasant  to  record  that  the  lad  afterward  completely 
recovered. 

The  heart  being  denser  than  some  other  parts  of  the 
human  internal  economy,  throws  a  very  satisfactory 
shadow  on  the  fluorescent  screen,  and  its  movements  in  a 
living  body  may  by  this  means  be  observed. 

An  excellent  method  of  obtaining  the  rays  was  found 
to  be  by  the  employment  of  a  cup-shaped  cathode  within 
the  tube,  the  cathode  so  placed  as  to  radiate  on  a  plate  of 
platinum  placed  obliquely,  whence  the  radiation  struck 
the  wall  of  the  tube.  It  was  believed  that  the  structure 
of  the  glass  became  gradually  altered,  and  the  external 
radiation  thereby  affected.  Platinocyanide  of  potassium 
or  barium  becomes  strongly  fluorescent  —  self-luminous 
—  under  the  rays,  and  it  was  found  a  good  plan  to  receive 
the  ray  from  the  tube  on  a  screen  coated  with  one  or  other 
of  these  substances. 

The  rays,  however,  require  to  be  used  with  care.  If 
the  skin  be  too  long  exposed  to  their  action  they  are  apt 
to  cause  great  irritation  and  to  affect  it  with,  in  Lord 
Lister’s  words,  “  a  sort  of  aggravated  sun-burning.  This 
suggests  the  idea,”  he  adds,  11  that  the  transmission  of 
the  rays  through  the  human  body  may  be  not  altogether 
a  matter  of  indifference  to  internal  organs,  but  may,  by 
long-continued  action,  produce,  according  to  the  condition 
of  the  part  concerned,  injurious  irritation  or  salutary 
stimulation. 9  9 

Investigation  into  the  rays  has,  of  course,  proceeded  in 
many  quarters,  and  in  1897,  a  Eontgen  Society  was 
formed.  Professor  Silvanus  Thompson,  in  his  presi- 


THE  RONTGEH  RAYS 


365 


dential  address,  on  November  5tli  in  that  year,  declared 
that,  excepting  antiseptics  and  anaesthetics,  no  discovery 
of  the  nineteenth  century  had  done  so  much  for  operative 
surgery.  The  rays  had  been  applied  to  the  diagnosis  of 
fractures  and  dislocations,  the  study  of  bone  diseases, 
and  the  detection  of  foreign  substances  in  the  human 
body.  Even  the  progress  of  tubercular  disease  in  the 
lungs  had  been  seen,  and  the  observation  of  the  beating 
heart  was  now  an  everyday  experience'. 

The  invention  of  focus  tubes  furnished  powerful 
sources  of  the  rays,  and  then  it  was  noticed  that  exposure 
to  them  frequently  caused  severe  local  inflammation;  if 
on  the  head,  it  was  accompanied  in  some  instances  with 
at  least  temporary  destruction  of  the  hair,  which  fell  out 
and  left  patches  of  baldness. 

The  cause  of  this  result  does  not  seem  clear  —  whether 
it  was  sunburn,  whether  it  was  electrical,  or  whether  it 
was  due  to  the  chemical  action  of  ozone  which  was 
generated  from  the  oxygen  of  the  air;  but  in  any  case  the 
results  of  too  long  exposure  are  evidently  most  injurious 
and  have  even  caused  death. 

Many  speculations  were  put  forward  as  to  the  physical 
character  of  the  rays.  Crookes  and  some  others  sup¬ 
posed  them  to  be  flights  of  very  tiny  atoms  or  hyper 
atoms;  some  regarded  them  as  an  extreme  ultra-violet 
light ;  apparently  Bontgen  himself  inclined  to  the  opinion 
that  they  were  due  to  longitudinal  vibrations,  and  Sir 
George  Stokes  that  they  might  be  innumerable,  trans¬ 
verse,  solitary  waves.  Apparently  they  are  not  homo¬ 
geneous,  but  of  different  kinds,  varying  in  power  of  pene¬ 
tration  and  varying  also  from  the  state  of  the  vacuum, 
the  emitting  surface,  and  also  on  the  form  of  the  tube. 
There  appears,  moreover,  to  be  some  difference  between 
the  true  Bontgen  rays  and  the  cathode  rays. 

They  have  passed  extensively  into  surgical  practice, 
even  a  small  hospital-ship  steam  trawler  called  the 
Alpha ,  intended  for  work  among  the  fishing  fleets  of  the 
North  Sea,  being  fitted  with  the  apparatus.  On  this  boat, 
of  course,  the  rays  are  very  useful  in  immediately  exam- 


366 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


ining  fractures  and  dislocations  sustained  by  the  men  in 
their  work. 

The  rays  have  been  much  used  in  the  treatment  of  the 
wounded  in  war.  They  assist  in  the  diagnosis  of  injuries 
from  shot,  as  well  as  in  searching  for  the  damaging 
bullet;  they  also  enable  the  surgeon  to  observe  the  repair 
and  recovery  of  wounds,  and  the  position  of  bones  which 
have  been  shattered  and  afterward  treated.  Indeed,  they 
may  furnish  much  valuable  information  concerning  the 
effects  of  treatment  and  the  process  of  repair. 

In  the  great  Boer  War,  which  commenced  in  October, 
1899,  the  rays  were  used  in  South  Africa,  as  well  as  in 
the  hospitals  in  England;  the  track  of  the  bullet  could 
frequently  be  noted  in  the  body  by  a  deposit  of  the  metal 
which  was  left. 

An  instance  of  this  kind  was  reported  in  the  Physician 
and  Surgeon  by  Dr.  A.  Barry  Blacker,  Superintendent  of 
the  X-ray  Department  at  St.  Thomas’s  Hospital.  It  was 
the  case  of  a  soldier  who  was  struck  by  a  bullet  in  the  left 
hand,  at  Colesberg,  and  was  invalided  home.  He  was 
taking  aim  with  his  rifle  when  the  bullet  struck  off  the 
thumb  of  liis  left  hand.  The  course  of  the  bullet  could  be 
seen  by  the  rays,  along  the  index  finger,  “  leaving  in  its 
course  a  track  of  metal.  ’  ’ 

Another  instance  mentioned  by  Dr.  Blacker  was  that 
of  a  soldier  whose  neck  was  pierced  by  a  bullet  at 
Colenso ;  the  rays  revealed  the  missile,  which  appeared  to 
be  a  Mauser  bullet,  resting  on  the  side  of  the  fifth  cervical 
vertebra.  The  soldier  suffered  pain  and  stiffness  in  the 
neck,  but  no  further  symptoms  of  injury  to  the  nerves 
were  manifested. 

Dr.  Blacker  noted  five  points  which  had  been  remark¬ 
able  in  soldiers  wounded  by  gunshots  and  invalided  home, 
and  examined  by  the  Eontgen  rays.  He  observed  the 
rarity  of  the  instances  when  projectiles  or  bullets  had 
been  retained ;  the  great  amount  of  bone  shattering  which 
had  been  caused,  compared  with  the  small  holes  made  by 
the  Mauser  bullet  in  entering  and  in  leaving  the  body; 
the  excellence  of  bone  repair ;  the  comparative  absence  of 


RADIUM  AND  RADIO  ACTIVITY 


367 


sinuses,  that  is,  unnatural  passages  which  discharge; 
and  the  frequent  occasions  when  the  track  of  the  bullet 
could  be  noted  by  the  deposit  of  metal. 

The  X-rays  were  found  most  useful  in  the  base  hos¬ 
pitals  and  on  the  lines  of  communication.  Seventeen  sets 
of  the  regulation  apparatus  had  been  sent  to  South 
Africa,  by  the  autumn  of  1900,  and  they  were  used  in  all 
the  larger  military  hospitals. 

The  employment  of  the  Rontgen  rays  in  military  sur¬ 
gery  has  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  advances 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Their  use  enables  the  old 
probing  after  bullets  to  be  dispensed  with,  and  reveals 
the  injury  to  bones.  Pain  and  possible  infection  are  thus 
avoided.  But  as  the  surgeon  in  charge  of  the  apparatus 
seldom  operates  on  the  patient,  and  as  a  dark-room  is 
needed  for  the  fluorescent  screen,  the  rays  have  not  been 
much  used  actually  on  the  field.  No  doubt  if  it  be  pos¬ 
sible  to  obviate  these  difficulties  they  will,  however,  be  so 
used  in  future. 

The  physical  nature  of  the  rays  still  remains  a 
mystery.  Scientists  cannot  at  present  polarize,  reflect,  or 
refract  them.  But  surgeons  and  medical  men  use  them 
so  freely,  and  with  such  increasing  success,  that  next  to 
the  introduction  of  anaesthetics  and  of  antiseptics  they 
will  probably  rank  as  one  of  the  greatest  aids  to  surgery 
and  to  therapeutics  discovered  in  the  nineteenth  century. 


RADIUM  AND  RADIO-ACTIVITY. 

THE  marvels  of  radium  may  be  said  to  have  been 
more  or  less  foreshadowed  by  the  discovery  of 
the  Rontgen  rays.  It  was  immediately  deter¬ 
mined  that  the  emanations  of  a  Crookes  tube  were  not 
ethereal  undulations  such  as  ordinary  light,  but  that  they 
consisted  of  actual  material  particles  of  matter  highly 

From  The  Scientific  American's  Reference  Book.  Copyright.  By 
permission. 


368 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


charged  with  electricity.  Naturally  the  attempt  was  made 
to  discover  whether  the  phenomena  of  phosphorescent 
substances  were  not  akin  to  those  of  the  Crookes  tube. 
The  leading  spirit  in  this  movement  was  Professor  Henri 
Becquerel,  who  selected  the  metal  uranium  as  the  subject 
of  his  experiments.  He  accidentally  discovered  that  the 
so-called  phosphorescent  attributes  of  uranium  were  not 
due  to  the  absorption  of  sunlight,  but  that  the  substance 
was  spontaneously  active,  and  that  the  light  which  came 
from  radium  was  a  new  kind  of  emanation  entirely  dif¬ 
ferent  from  the  N-rays.  To  these  new  radiations  the 
name  4  4  Becquerel  Rays  ’  ’  was  given. 

Uranium  is  obtained  from  pitch-blende,  an  ore  more  or 

less  widely  distributed  through  the  world,  but  found 

chiefly  in  Bohemia  and  Cornwall.  Madame  Curie,  who  at 

the  time  Becquerel  was  making  his  investigations,  was  a 

senior  student  at  the  Municipal  School  of  Physics  and 

Technical  Chemistry  in  Paris,  had  selected  4  4  Radio- 

Activity  ” —  a  name  which  she  coined  —  as  the  subject  of 

her  Doctor’s  thesis.  Naturally  it  was  necessary  for  her 

to  studv  uranium  and  similar  minerals  with  some  care. 
%/ 

She  found  that,  after  having  extracted  all  the  uranium 
contained  in  her  specimen  of  pitch-blende,  there  still  re¬ 
mained  in  the  residue  a  substance  far  more  active  than 
uranium.  After  isolating  this  unknown  radiant  substance 
and  analyzing  it,  she  found  that  it  contained  two  new  ele¬ 
ments.  The  one  she  christened  44  polonium,”  after 
Poland,  the  land  of  her  birth;  the  other  she  named 
44  radium.” 

Several  tons  of  pitch-blende  must  be  treated  and  con¬ 
centrated  before  a  few  grains  of  radium  are  obtained. 
But  those  few  grains  are  worth  more  than  any  precious 
gem  or  metal  in  the  world.  Indeed  they  have  almost  any 
value  which  their  fortunate  possessor  may  choose  to  give 
them.  There  are  probably  not  two  pounds  of  pure  radium 
in  existence ;  but  at  the  present  market  price  they  would 
be  worth  each  at  the  very  least  several  million  dollars. 
There  is  more  gold  in  sea  water  than  radium  in  pitch¬ 
blende  ;  and  that  is  why  its  price  is  so  high. 


RADIUM  AND  RADIO  ACTIVITY 


369 


The  properties  of  radium  will  probably  necessitate  a 
decided  revision  in  some  time-honored  chemical  theories ; 
for  radium  refuses  to  conform  to  our  long-established 
atomic  theories,  and  behaves  in  a  most  inexplicable 
fashion.  In  the  first  place  the  radio-activity  of  the  ele¬ 
ment  has  been  found  to  consist  of  three  distinct  sets  of 
emanations,  which  have  been  respectively  christened  the 
Alpha,  the  Beta,  and  the  Gamma  rays,  for  want  of  better 
names. 

The  Alpha  rays  are  not,  like  ordinary  light,  ethereal 
pulsations,  but  actual  material  particles  hurled  off  at  a 
speed  of  about  20,000  miles  per  second  from  the  parent 
mass.  They  are  highly  charged  with  positive  electricity. 
Their  speed  is  about  40,000  times  greater  than  that  of  a 
rifle  bullet. 

The  Beta  rays,  which  consist  of  particles  of  matter, 
corpuscles  of  electricity  or  “  electrons  ”  as  the  modern 
physicist  calls  them,  move  still  more  swiftly.  Each  of 
the  Beta  particles  (very  much  smaller  in  size  than  the 
Alpha  particles)  travels  at  the  rate  of  about  100,000  miles 
a  second.  They  are  the  fastest  moving  objects  known  in 
the  universe ;  for  their  speed  is  three  hundred  times  faster 
than  that  of  the  swiftest  star.  Such  is  their  velocity  that 
it  takes  a  foot  of  solid  iron  to  stop  them. 

The  Gamma  rays  are  probably  Rontgen  rays,  if  one 
may  judge  by  the  similarity  of  the  properties  of  the  two. 
Like  the  Beta  rays,  the  Gamma  emanations  have  remark¬ 
able  penetrating  properties.  But  of  the  three  kinds  of 
rays  discharged  by  radium,  the  Gamma  rays  are  the  most 
difficult  to  detect  and  the  least  perfectly  understood. 

Professor  Curie,  Madame  Curie’s  husband,  has  dis¬ 
covered  that  radium  constantly  maintains  a  temperature 
of  about  five  or  six  degrees  above  the  surrounding  atmos¬ 
phere.  For  some  time  this  startling  phenomenon  baffled 
physicists.  Here  was  a  substance  constantly  giving  off 
heat  without  being  apparently  consumed,  and  without 
anything  to  make  it  hot.  It  is  now  thought  that  this 
strange  property  can  be  explained  by  assuming  that  the 
particles  collide  with  one  another,  and  that  the  heat 
Vol.  IY  —  22 


370 


EXPLORATION,  TRAVEL  AND  INVENTION 


generated  by  the  impact  (a  heat  that  must  be  very  marked 
when  it  is  considered  how  enormous  is  the  energy  of  a 
particle  moving  at  the  rate  of  many  thousand  miles  a 
second)  is  sufficient  to  explain  the  heat  generated  by 
radium. 

The  fact  that  radium  is  a  spontaneous  source  of 
thermal  energy  is  in  itself  a  fact  sufficiently  startling. 
Sir  William  Kamsay,  however,  has  discovered  still  other 
startling  properties  of  this  startling  substance.  He  col¬ 
lected  the  material  particles  which  are  shot  from  the  sub¬ 
stance,  analyzed  them,  and  found  that  after  a  few  days 
they  changed  into  helium,  a  gas  which  was  first  discovered 
burning  in  the  sun.  This  seems  dangerously  like  the 
transmutation  of  one  element  into  another,  the  problem 
on  the  solution  of  which  the  medieval  alchemist  had 
worked  for  centuries.  After  ages  of  labor  seventy-odd 
bits  of  primordial  matter  had  been  wrung  from  the  earth, 
so  simple  and  so  unchangeable  in  their  nature  that  they 
were  deemed  elements.  And  now  one  of  them  proves  to 
be  nothing  but  the  product  of  another.  Can  we  ever  be 
certain  again  that  the  rest  are  not  also  likely  to  change? 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  our  chemistry  needs  revision? 

The  atomic  weight  of  radium  has  been  ascertained  by 
Madame  Curie  to  be  225 ;  that  of  helium  is  2.2.  In  other 
words,  every  atom  of  radium  breaks  up  into  about  100 
parts  of  helium.  What  becomes  of  the  old  teaching  that 
atoms  are  indivisible  particles  of  matter?  Some  of  the 
more  advanced  thinkers  have  abandoned  the  atom  and 
adopted  the  ‘  ‘  electron  ’  ’  as  the  ultimate  unit.  The  atom 
is  certainly  quite  inadequate  to  account  for  the  properties 
of  radium.  Atoms  may  be  said  to  be  composed  of  elec¬ 
trons  moving,  like  miniature  solar  systems,  with  incon¬ 
ceivable  rapidity  in  well-defined  orbits.  Sometimes  a 
little  planet  of  that  system  becomes  unstable,  darts  off 
with  terrific  speed  like  a  comet,  and  thus  gives  rise  to  the 
phenomena  of  radium,  of  uranium,  and  of  every  other 
radioactive  substance. 

Has  radium  any  practical  value?  it  may  be  asked.  So 
far  it  is  more  of  a  scientific  curiosity  than  anything  else. 


RADIUM  AND  RADIO  ACTIVITY 


371 


Still,  it  is  not  without  some  use.  It  is  an  excellent  de¬ 
tector  of  false  diamonds;  for  it  causes  the  real  gem  to 
glow  with  wonderful  brilliancy,  while  the  paste  imitation 
is  left  comparatively  lustreless.  Then,  again,  radium 
kills  bacteria  and  even  very  small  animals.  The  modern 
physician  has  used  the  substance  with  some  success  in 
treating  certain  diseases,  among  them  cancer  and  lupus. 
Living  tissues  of  the  body  are  strangely  affected  by  short 
exposures  to  the  substance.  Sores  are  produced,  like 
burns,  which  heal  only  after  weeks  have  elapsed.  An 
electroscope  has  also  been  invented,  the  underlying  prin¬ 
ciple  of  which  is  dependent  upon  the  properties  of  radium. 


SELF  CULTURE  QUESTIONS 

FRANK  HEYWOOD  HODDER, 

Professor  of  American  History,  University  of  Kansas. 


1.  What  is  the  underlying  human  instinct  common  to  the  three  great  subjects 

to  which  this  volume  is  devo'ted?  (pp.  17-20.) 

2.  In  which  of  the  centuries  from  the  first  to  the  19th  was  there  most  activity 

in  exploration  and  discovery?  (pp.  22-24.) 

3.  What  reasons  have  we  for  supposing  that  New  England  was  explored  by 

the  Norsemen  500  years  before  Columbus?  (pp.  25-31.) 

4.  To  what  portion  of  America  was  the  name  of  New  Spain  first  given  ? 

(p.  35.) 

5.  What  was  the  real  object  of  the  Spaniards  who  came  to  America?  (pp. 

36  et  seq.) 

6.  How  was  Cortez  able  to  hold  communication  with  the  natives?  (pp.  41-42.) 

7.  What  do  you  think  of  the  diplomacy  of  Montezuma  in  dealing  with  Cortez  ? 

(p.  44.) 

8.  What  city  was  called  “  The  Venice  of  the  Aztecs?”  (p.  49.) 

9.  When  was  the  mariner’s  compass  invented  and  by  whom?  (p.  51.) 

10.  Name  some  of  the  occupations  of  Christopher  Columbus?  (pp.  53-55.) 

11.  What  were  the  obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  his  carrying  out  his  “  Great 

Idea?”  (pp.  56-57.) 

12.  What  was  the  real  object  of  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus?  (p.  57.) 

13.  What  is  the  origin  of  the  name  of  “The  West  Indies?”  (p.  64.) 

14.  What  were  the  character,  the  pursuits,  and  religious  beliefs  of  the  natives  of 

Cuba?  (pp.  65,  66,  69,  70,  and  72.) 

15.  How  was  Columbus  received  on  his  second  visit  to  Cuba?  (p.  74.) 

16.  How  did  America  get  its  name?  (p.  76.) 

17.  What  name  did  the  Indians  give  to  the  Rocky  Mountains?  (p.  81.) 

18.  Where  is  the  Toltec  Gorge?  (pp.  82-84.) 

19.  Name  some  of  Audubon’s  claims  to  distinction,  (p.  88.) 

20.  Give  some  account  of  his  exploring  trips,  (pp.  88-100.) 

21.  What  was  the  effect  upon  Audubon  of  all  his  adventures  and  experiences? 

(pp.  99-100.) 

22.  How  was  gold  first  found  in  California  and  by  whom?  (p.  103.) 

23.  What  are  “placers”  and  what  is  placer  mining?  (p.  105.) 

24.  By  what  routes  were  the  Californian  gold  fields  reached?  (pp.  106-107.) 

25.  What  part  does  mercury  play  in  gold  mining?  (p.  111.) 

26.  How  does  Bret  Harte  describe  the  early  miners?  (pp.  112-113.) 

27.  Describe  the  situation  of  the  “Eldorado  of  the  North.”  (p.  115.) 

28.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  gold  first  found  in  California  and 

Alaska?  (p.  116.) 

29.  Who  first  discovered  gold  in  the  Klondike?  When  and  how?  (p.  116.) 

30.  Describe  the  method  of  getting  out  the  gold  in  Alaska.  (r>n.  117-118.) 

31.  How  did  the  early  gold  seekers  in  Alaska  reach  the  gold  fields?  (pp.  119- 

120.) 

32.  Where  are  the  Andes?  (pp.  127-128.) 

33.  What  is  the  main  difference  between  the  mountain  chains  of  the  Old  World 

and  the  New?  (p.  128.) 

34.  Name  the  principal  places  called  at  by  Bougainville,  (pp.  137-158.) 

35.  What  was  the  state  of  the  Philippines  when  Bougainville  visited  there? 

(p.  143.) 

36.  Relate  the  anecdote  of  the  envoy  and  the  Governor  of  Java.  (p.  147.) 

37.  Name  some  peculiarities  of  Surabayan  etiquette,  (pp.  156-157.) 

38.  What  was  the  coincidence  related  on  Bougainville’s  reaching  Valparaiso? 

(pp.  156-157.) 

39.  What  was  the  discovery  made  by  Captain  Speke  in  Central  Africa? 

(p.  165.) 

40.  What  were  Livingstone’s  reasons  for  going  to  Africa?  (p.  167.) 

41.  Why  did  Henry  M.  Stanley  visit  Central  Africa?  Who  sent  him  there? 

(p.  168.) 

42.  What  were  some  of  the  difficulties  Livingstone  met  with  (a)  from  the 

natives,  (b)  from  the  climate?  (pp.  171-172.) 

43.  Why  was  it  necessary  for  Vainberj  to  disguise  himself  in  order  to  visit 

Khiva?  (p.  173.) 

44.  How  did  his  disguise  succeed  with  the  Khan?  (p.  180.) 

45.  What  is  one  mark  of  good  breeding  in  Central  Asia?  (p.  181.) 

46.  What  are  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  land  of  Tibet?  (p.  186.) 

47.  How  were  Sven  Hedin’s  plans  frustrated?  (pp.  188-201.) 

[372] 


373 


SELF  CULTURE  QUESTIONS 


48.  How  does  Commander  Lynch  describe  the  appearance  of  Jerusalem? 

(p.  205.) 

49.  Name  some  of  the  most  and  some  of  the  least  credible  relics  and  plhces 

shown  in  Jerusalem.  (Read  the  whole  of  In  and  About  Jerusalem.) 

50.  What  was  the  most  remarkable  object  seen  on  the  shores  of  the  Dead  Sea? 

(pp.  218-219.) 

51.  Name  some  other  peculiarities  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  its  shores,  (pp.  218- 

223.) 

52.  For  what  purpose  were  the  Rock  Temples  of  Ceylon  said  to  have  been 

originally  built?  (p.  224.) 

53.  Describe  briefly  the  rock  fortress  of  Sigiri.  (p.  227.) 

54.  Why  do  not  the  Burmese  grease  the  axles  of  their  carts?  (p.  230.) 

55.  How  is  rice  harvested  in  Burmah?  (p.  231.) 

56.  What  do  you  know  of  the  teak-wood  industry  in  Burmah?  (p.  235.) 

57.  What  part  do  elephants  take  in  it?  Give  a  brief  description  of  them  at 

work.  (pp.  238-242.) 

58.  What  do  you  know  of  the  coral  reefs  of  the  South  Seas?  (pp.  243-250.) 

59.  What  are  the  most  remarkable  features  of  a  Fijian  landscape?  (pp.  250- 

252.) 

60.  Did  Captain  Kane  succeed  in  his  two  expeditions?  (p.  252.) 

61.  Describe  a  remarkable  effect  of  intense  cold  in  the  darkness,  (p.  258.) 

62.  Give  briefly  an  account  of  the  several  expeditions  of  C.  F.  Hall.  (p.  259.) 

68.  Name  some  of  the  plants  and  flowers  that  grow  in  Frobisher’s  Bay. 

(p.  203.) 

64.  Several  places  about  Frobisher’s  Bay  are  called  after  distinguished  Ameri¬ 

cans.  Name  them.  (pp.  266-268.) 

65.  What  discovery  most  closely  connects  the  Sixteenth  with  the  Twentieth 

Century?  (p.  271.) 

66.  Which  century  produced  the  greatest  number  of  inventions?  (pp.  271-277.) 

67.  Give  a  list  of  the  inventions  relating  to  Electricity,  the  Steam  Engine,  the 

Printing  Press,  and  Photography  from  1560  to  1906.  (pp.  271-277.) 

68.  Which  12  of  the  distinguished  American  inventors  do  you  think  have  most 

benefited  mankind?  (pp.  277-278.) 

69.  Give  the  names  of  a  dozen  of  the  most  prolific  inventors,  (p.  279.) 

70.  What  is  the  chief  characteristic  of  women's  inventions  as  compared  with 

those  of  men?  (p.  279.) 

71.  Who  was  the  first  colored  patentee?  (p.  280.) 

72.  Among  the  first  steamboats,  etc.,  which  nation  figures  the  most  prom¬ 

inently?  (p.  280.) 

73.  Describe  some  of  the  earlier  methods  of  agriculture,  (pp.  281-282.) 

74.  Who  was  the  pioneer  maker  of  agricultural  machinery?  (pp.  282-283.) 

75.  Name  some  record  performances  of  agricultural  machinery,  (pp.  285-290.) 

76.  What  kinds  of  power  are  employed  to  drive  agricultural  machinery? 

(pp.  285-290.) 

77.  What  difficulties  had  the  pioneers  of  transcontinental  railroads  to  over¬ 

come?  (pp.  290-304.) 

78.  When  was  the  first  across  the  continent  railroad  finished?  (p.  295.) 

79.  What  were  the  original  motives  for  making  across  the  continent  railroads 

both  here  and  in  Canada?  (p.  295.) 

80.  Describe  the  course  taken  by  the  Canadian  Pacific  R.  R.  (p.  298.) 

81.  What  was  the  record  in  the  way  of  railroad  construction?  (p.  300.) 

82.  What  did  Stephenson  say  to  the  designer  of  the  Niagara  Suspension  Bridge? 

(p.  307.) 

83.  Give  some  figures  about  the  construction  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge,  (p.  308.) 

84.  Why  is  it  that  American  bridge  builders  are  able  to  beat  the  world? 

(pp.  309-315.) 

85.  What  was  the  great  work  of  J.  B.  Eads?  (p.  314.) 

86.  Name  the  chief  pioneer  balloonists,  (pp.  315-322.) 

87.  How  were  the  pioneer  balloons  made  to  ascend?  (pp.  315-322.) 

88.  Name  some  of  the  earliest  calculating  machines,  (pp.  322-323.) 

89.  What  is  the  most  famous  calculating  machine  ever  made?  (p.  323.) 

90.  What  is  the  most  familiar  calculating  machine  and  what  does  it  per¬ 

form?  (pp.  327-333.) 

91.  Give  a  general  idea  of  what  we  mean  by  the  ether,  (pp.  334-338.) 

92.  Name  some  of  the  properties  of  magnets,  (p.  338.) 

93.  What  is  the  effect  of  a  current  of  electricity  on  a  magnet?  (p.  340.) 

04.  How  can  you  convert  a  poker  into  a  magnet?  (p.  341.) 

95.  What  do  you  know  of  the  relation  of  magnetism  to  electricity?  (pp. 
343-346.) 

06.  What  practical  results  come  from  this  relationship?  (pp.  343-346.) 

97.  What  part  did  (a)  American  and  (b)  British  enterprises  take  in  laying 

the  first  Atlantic  Cable?  (pp.  346-356.) 

98.  What  do  you  know  of  the  Rontgen  Rays  and  their  use  in  Surgery?  (p. 

356.) 

99.  What  were  the  “  Becquerel  Rays?”  (p.  368.) 

,00.  Name  some  of  the  wonderful  properties  of  Radium,  (pp.  366-372.) 


One  Hundred  of  the  Best  Books  of  History,  Exploration,  Travel 

and  Invention. 


Brazil  . Agassiz. 

The  Conquest  of  the  Air . Alexander,  J. 

Audubon’s  Western  Journal . Audubon,  J.  W. 

Boys’  Book  of  Inventions . Baker,  R.  S. 

Boys’  Second  Book  of  Inventions . Baker,  R.  S. 

Eight  Years’  Wanderings  in  Cejdon . Baker,  Sir  S.  W. 

Footprints  of  Travel . Ballou,  Maturin  M. 

Due  South . Ballou,  Maturin  M. 

The  Bible  in  Spain . Borrow,  G. 

Wild  Wales . Borrow,  G. 

Captain  Cook,  Life  and  Voyages, . Besant,  W. 

Naturalist  on  the  Amazon . Bishop,  Mrs. 

Norway . Boyesen. 

Conquest  of  the  Southwest . Brady,  C.  T. 

First  Across  the  Continent . Brooks,  E.  S. 

Century  Book  for  Young  Americans . Brooks,  E.  S. 

Sir  William  Johnson . Buell,  A.  C. 

Louisiana  and  the  Fair  (io  Vols.) . Buel,  J.  W. 

A  Ride  to  Khiva . . . Burnaby,  F. 

Wanderings  in  Three  Continents . Burton,  Sir  R. 

The  Great  Lone  Land . Butler,  Sir  W.  F. 

Story  of  Magellan . Butterworth,  H. 

Heroes  of  the  Middle  West . Catherwood,  A. 

Ancient  Cities  of  the  New  World . Charnay,  A. 

Life  in  the  Sandwich  Islands . Cheever. 

A  Diary  from  Dixie . CheSnut. 

Natives  in  Hawaii . Coan,  Titus. 

James  Oglethorpe  and  Georgia . Cooper,  H.  C. 

At  Home  in  Fiji . Cumming,  C.  F.  G. 

Two  Years  Before  the  Mast . Dana,  R.  H. 

The  Voyage  of  the  Beagle . Darwin,  C. 

Drake’s  Works  (5  Vols.) . Drake,  S.  A. 

Lost  in  the  Jungle . DuChaillu. 

History  of  the  United  States . Fiske,  J. 

Dutch  and  Quaker  Colonies . Fiske,  J. 

Real  Siberia . . Fraser. 

Half  Hours  with  Early  Explorers . Frost,  T. 

South  America . Gallenga,  A. 

The  Pearl  of  the  Antilles . Gallenga,  A. 

Historical  Biographies . Gardiner,  S.  R. 

A  Yankee  in  Pigmy  Land  (Africa)...  . Gell,  W.  E. 

The  Romance  of  Modern  Electricity . Gibson,  C.  R. 

Explorers  and  Travelers . Greeley,  A.  W. 

The  Mikado’s  Empire . Griffis,  W.  E. 

Romance  of  Discovery . Griffis,  W.  E. 

Camps  in  the  Rockies . Grohman. 

Stories  of  Discovery . Hale,  E.  E. 

Stories  of  Inventions . Hale,  E.  E. 


374 


GNE  HUNDRED  OE  THE  BEST  BOOKS 


375 


Arctic  Researches . Hall,  C.  F. 

Castilian  Days . , . Hay,  J. 

Through  Asia . Hedin,  Sven. 

Central  Asia  and  Tibet . Hedin,  Sven. 

Alaska  and  the  Klondike . Heilprin,  A. 

Triumphs  of  Science . Herbert,  H.  A. 

American  Explorers .  Higginson,  T.  W. 

Henry  Hudson  and  the  New  Netherlands.  .Higginson,  T.  W. 

William  Penn . Hodges. 

The  Sciences . Holden,  E.  S. 

Italian  Journeys . Howells. 

The  Crest  of  the  Continent . Ingersoll,  E. 

History  of  New  York . Irving,  W. 

Story  of  Geographical  Discovery . Jacobs. 

Boys’  Book  of  Exploration . Jenks. 

Explorers  and  Travelers . Johnson,  W.  H. 

Arctic  Explorations . Kane,  E.  K. 

Burma  Painted  and  Described . Kelly,  R.  T. 

Tent  Life  in  Siberia . Kennan,  G. 

Boy  Travelers  in  China  and  Japan . Knox. 

Vikings  of  the  Pacific . Laut,  A.  C. 

The  Pathfinders  of  the  West . Laut,  A.  C. 

Early  Adventurers  in  Persia . La  yard. 

The  Jordan  Valley  and  Petra . Libbey,  D.  W. 

Central  Africa . Long. 

Unknown  Mexico . Lumholtz. 

Narrative  of  the  United  States  Expedition 

to  the  River  Jordan . Lynch,  F.  W. 

Stories  of  Great  Inventors . Macomber,  H.  E. 

Rambles  and  Studies  in  Greece . Mahaffy. 

Mexico,  Aztec  Spanish  and  Republican.  ..  .Mayer,  Brantz. 

The  Locomotive  Engineer . Moffett,  C. 

Heroes  of  Discovery  in  America . Morris,  C. 

American  Inventors . Mowry,  Wm. 

The  High  Road  of  Empire . Murray,  W.  H.  IT.  * 

Scientific  American  Reference  Book . Munn  &  Co. 

Farthest  North . Nansen,  F. 

Antartica  . Nordensjold  &  Anderson. 

All  the  Russias . Norman,  H. 

Parkman’s  Works  (8  Vols.) . Parkman,  F. 

Pinkerton’s  Voyages . Pinkerton,  J. 

Conquest  of  Peru . Prescott. 

The  Buccaneers  and  Marooners  of  America. Pyle,  H. 

The  Hudson  Bay  Territory . Robinson. 

Episodes  from  the  Winning  of  the  West. .  .Roosevelt,  T. 

William  Dampier . Russell,  C. 

Uios  . SCHLIEMANN,  R. 

In  the  Land  of  the  Cave  and  Cliff  Dwellers. Schwatka,  F. 

Samuel  De  Champlain . Sedgwick. 

Journal  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Source  of 

the  Nile . .  .Speke,  J.  H. 

How  I  Found  Livingstone . Stanley,  H.  M. 


376 


ONE  HUNDRED  OF  THE  BEST  BOOKS 


Through  the  Dark  Continent . Stanley,  H.  M. 

Sinai  and  Palestine . Stanley. 

Buccaneers  and  Pirates  of  Our  Coasts . Stockton,  F. 

Climbs  and  Explorations  in  Canadian 

Rockies  . StutfieLd,  H.  E.  M. 

Europe  Seen  with  Knapsack  and  StaffTAYLOR,  Bayard. 

Travels  in  Greece . Taylor,  Bayard. 

Greece  and  Russia . 

Land  of  the  Saracens . Taylor,  Bayard. 

Father  Marquette,  the  Explorer  of  the 

Mississippi  . Thwartes,  R.  G. 

Daniel  Boone . Thwartes,- R.  G. 

Stories  of  Indiana . Thompson,  M. 

Heroes  and  Martyrs  of  Invention . Towle,  G.  M. 

Landmark  History  of  New  York . Ulmann,  A. 

Travels  in  Central  Asia . Vambery,  A. 

Great  Explorers  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Verne,  Jules. 

Russia  . Wallace,  A. 

The  Last  Journal  of  David  Livingstone. . .  .Waller,  H.  (Ed.) 

My  Winter  on  the  Nile . Warner,  C.  D. 

The  Story  of  Captain  John  Smith . Warner,  C.  D. 

Jungle  Trails  and  Jungle  People . Whitney,  C. 

Western  Africa . Wilson. 

The  Romance  of  Mining . Williams,  A. 

The  Romance  of  Modern  Mechanism . Williams,  A. 

The  Romance  of  Modern  Locomotion . Williams,  A. 

The  Romance  of  Modern  Engineering . Williams,  A. 

Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  the  U.  S. .  WiNSOR,  J. 

Gray  Days  and  Gold . Winter,  W. 

Scrambles  Among  the  Alps . Whymper,  E. 


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